Many Choices Available to Logan

As students journey home to warm beds and turkey, many have to make it from the Square to Logan Airport before heading to their final destination.

Luckily, they will have plenty of options today.

Students can choose from taxis, the subway, U.S. Shuttle vans and Undergraduate Council buses for their transportation.

The U.S. Shuttle will run regularly scheduled vans at ten minutes before the hour from Johnston Gate.

Students can pay a special rate of six dollars, provided that they purchase a voucher at the Holyoke Center Ticket Office in advance.

The shuttle will face stiff competition today from the council, which has arranged for a fleet of buses to take students to the airport between 8 a.m. and 7 p.m. today for just one dollar.

Despite the competition from the council, James T. Wall, general manager for U.S. Shuttle, said he does not expect demand for the shuttle to decrease.

Wall said the shuttle service was using seven or eight vans in Cambridge yesterday, about twice as many as usually serve the area.

"We're seeing much more volume than we expected," Wall said.

The increased volume is a factor in U.S. Shuttle's current expansion of its fleet, he said.

"We're in the process of converting our fleet into compact natural gas vehicles," he said. "We have a contract for six more vans."

Wall said U.S. Shuttle takes about 3,000 people in and out of Cambridge each month, including Harvard and MIT students, residents and hotel guests.

In an effort to make the U.S. Shuttle the preferred means of transportation to Logan for students, Wall said U.S. Shuttle is considering making a deal with the council.

If the council can provide a substantial increase in passengers for the shuttle, U.S. Shuttle will sell tickets to students for $6 through the council, reduced from the usual $8 fare, Wall said.

The council's buses will leave Johnston Gate on the hour and then stop at Currier House, with additional departures at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30 p.m., according to council representative Michael A. O'Mary '99.

But council members said they are concerned that students are not aware of the bus service.

"The rain washed many of the posters away [yesterday]," O'Mary said.

Although the council allotted $1,625 in its budget for the Thanksgiving bus service, it will not recoup the expenditures from student fares. But O'Mary said the loss is not significant because the shuttles are a student service.

"We'll be running a loss on this," he said. "It's my impression that we will be running buses [anyway] for upcoming holidays as well."

Traditionally, the council has operated airport shuttles before the Thanksgiving, winter and spring holidays.

Tickets can be purchased at the council office in the basement of Holworthy or aboard the bus on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Taxis from the Square to Logan Airport typically cost between $20 and $25.