Quick Questions: What Happened to the AAS Shuttles?

With Thanksgiving break fast approaching, Amherst students have yet to receive the holiday shuttle schedule, leaving many wondering whether the community bus service has pumped its brakes after two years of operation. The delay, however, stems from the Association of Amherst Students (AAS) Transportation Committee’s decision to switch shuttle companies in hopes of improving reliability and communication. 

The Transportation Committee is working to choose a new company and finalize shuttle schedules and pricing as soon as possible. Committee Chair Tony Wang ’29 says that the committee needs updated information from college administration before releasing the shuttle schedule and sign-up form to the student body. Nevertheless, he believes “they will be sent out relatively soon. I’m really hoping … next week.” 

After summer break, AAS made the decision to end their partnership with Amherst Buses, which has been the company used for holiday shuttles since 2024. Over the years, students have raised concerns about the uncertainty of pickup locations and delays in shuttle arrivals. Wang even noted that students who signed up for shuttles have been left behind on several occasions. Students’ primary concern was not the cost of tickets, but rather whether shuttles would arrive at their destinations on time, particularly when students were going to an airport. 

Wang says he wants students to have better information about where buses are, when they will arrive, and how delays will be handled. The committee also aims to keep ticket prices affordable, with AAS contributing “tens of thousands of dollars” to subsidize shuttle services. The shuttles were originally a senate project started by Stephanie Choi ’24, but Wang added that current AAS senators are “really looking forward to continuing [the shuttles] and making them better.” 

The committee began gathering student feedback toward the end of last semester, when three new members joined the committee. The transportation team distributed an end-of-year survey on April 7, 2026, to better understand students’ shuttle experiences by asking about their travel plans and flight schedules. “The general gist … [was that] people were unhappy with the transportation committee and very understandably so,” Wang revealed. The feedback was one of the key drivers that prompted AAS to search for a new provider. 

Wang acknowledged that the delay in releasing this year’s information has been stressful for students trying to coordinate holiday travel. While AAS announced the shuttle schedule over five weeks in advance of Thanksgiving break in 2025, the schedule has not yet been posted this year despite the holiday being four weeks away. “As someone who has taken the shuttles in the past, I fully understand how nerve-wracking it must be to need to be [somewhere] and need to buy plane tickets … every day that you wait, it gets that much more expensive,” he shared. Once the Thanksgiving shuttle information is released, the committee plans to turn its attention to winter break transportation and begin streamlining the process for subsequent breaks. 

The committee cannot finalize the choice of a new company nor release an announcement to the Amherst community without help from college administration. Wang said Associate Dean of Students Crystal Norwood is their primary contact for coordinating shuttles. He also explained that only administrators, such as Norwood, can handle the contractual and financial negotiations with bus companies on the college’s behalf because students cannot legally represent Amherst. Wang is now “waiting for administrators to send out data about new prices, the number of seats, [and] times.”  

Despite the challenges of coordinating with new potential providers and college administrators, Wang remains optimistic about the upcoming break and the future of the shuttle program. “I believe that we are on [a] very good track to have [the announcement] released by next Monday … They’re not finalized, but we have strong faith that they should be finalized.” Wang hopes that the committee can eventually expand shuttle offerings. He discussed potentially adding routes for events such as Homecoming or organizing transportation for field trips, but the committee’s focus remains on making service more dependable and ensuring students can travel home with fewer uncertainties.