Zach Jacobs, a junior architecture major, and Tom Briccetti, a junior art video major, got the idea to start a coach bus transportation line for students at Syracuse University after Jacobs’ friend at the University of Delaware told him about the line he started there.

‘Zach always has crazy ideas, but this actually sounded like a good one,’ Briccetti said.

So they went ahead and started the transportation line, which will take students from Syracuse to Penn Station in New York City.

Orange Line will operate during times that most SU students go home on breaks or long weekends. Tickets are currently on sale for trips home during Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving and Winter Break. They can be purchased on the Web site for the student-run transportation service.

‘If you don’t have someone to personally drive you home, this is the next best thing,’ Briccetti said. ‘We’re students too, so we know what students like.’

The buses are supposed to cater to exactly what students want, Bricetti and Jacobs said. They offer satellite television and free Wi-Fi to commuters. Buses can pick students up in front of Shaw, Flint, Sadler and Lawrinson Halls, and on Stadium Place between Brockway, Brewster and Boland Halls.

‘I think it’s a great way to get home because it’s affordable and convenient, especially since it’s picking me up right in front of my dorm,’ said Alex Goebel, a freshman engineering major.

Jacobs and Bricetti prepared for the fall trips by designing a Web site with flyers, common questions and all of the bus information.

The two partnered with a company that lends out their coach buses and consulted with Jacobs’ uncle, who is a business lawyer. He helped them to register the company with the state of New York.

‘We don’t want kids thinking that Orange Line is sketchy in any way,’ Briccetti said. ‘We want to make it clear to parents that we are doing everything official and legal. We are trying to provide a service students will use.’

rltoback@syr.edu

Published on August 31, 2009 at 12:00 pm