Students repeatedly voiced their concerns over the possible execution of the Gold Line from the Hornet Shuttle Line at an open forum held on Tuesday.

This forum was the second attempt for the University Transportation and Parking Services to answer questions, address concerns and hear suggestions from Sacramento State students and faculty.

This forum, lead by Abigail Stone, associate vice president of business and administrative services, and Alfredo Orozco, UTAPS director, was held to discuss two proposed changes to the Hornet Shuttle Lines expected to save money.

“In the past few years with the Hornet Shuttle, we’re spending more than we’re bringing in,” Stone said.

According to Stone’s presentation, the proposed changes would save about $100,000 annually, allowing for the purchase or lease of new buses as well as for other anomalies.

The first change would be to eliminate times in the shuttle routes when the fewest number of people seem to be riding the shuttles. These times are in the early morning, mid-afternoon and evening.

So the shuttle’s routes which now begin at 6:50 a.m. and run until 6:20 p.m. would instead begin at 7:50 until 9:40 a.m. The busses would then take a break, refuel, then start the route again at 2:20 until 4:20 p.m.

The second proposed change would be to eliminate the Gold Line form the Hornet Shuttle Line. This bus runs around the Howe and Arden area.

The main reason for this change, Stone said, is because Sacramento Regional Transit offers a few buses that travel along similar routes as the Gold Line, causing a redundancy.

The most widely voiced concern at the forum by was that eliminating the Gold Line would cause more harm than good.

“Every student that I have talked to was in agreement that the second proposal, with the Gold Line, is not the best choice in the situation,” said Rylan Gervase, Associated Students Inc., executive vice president.

Another concern that many students shared was that the Hornet Line seems more redundant than the Gold Line and should be cut instead.

The Hornet Line was only added to the about a year ago, making it the newest line. It travels around the campus and to the light rail station on 65thStreet.

Students highlighted the redundancy of the Hornet lines travel around the campus, because the Green Line does the same thing. There are also three Regional transit city buses that go to the light rail station.

These facts, combined with the Hornet lines ridership standing as the lowest out of the three lines make it a better candidate to be cut than the Gold Line.

“Look at the weakest line, not the strongest line, and the gold line is your strongest line,” said Chris Smith, ASI vice president of finance.

Stone and Orozco took into consideration the students concerns, but still defended their decision about choosing the Gold Line to eliminate over the Hornet Line.

“Ridership on the hornet line is not what we want it to be, we just need to market it better,” Orozco said.

Cayla Gales can be reached at [email protected].