Binghamton University students are seeing an increase in the price of Escape bus tickets for both weekend and holiday trips, as costs rise from $45 round trip to $65 this school year.
According to John Criscuolo, executive director of Escape, the ticket prices were first affected in January 2008 when the price of diesel fuel went up. Since the ticket price has been $45 round trip for the past 10 years, Escape has been facing a deficit due to the ever-rising gas prices.
“It’s not that we want to [raise the prices], we were just being too nice for too long,” Criscuolo said. “Our prices are still cheaper than our competition’s [Greyhound and Short Line]. We heard that their tickets were $66 one day and then $90 the next.”
Over the past few years the business has experienced a growth, causing a need for more buses, which the program lacks the funds to pay for, Criscuolo said. On regular weekends Escape sends one or two buses into Manhattan, but on school breaks the Chenango Valley Line, where the Escape buses are rented from, has to go into its pool in Manhattan to supply Escape with the extra buses.
“Without realizing it, we were getting charged more money for the use of the buses,” Criscuolo said. “There is no flat fee anymore, but it depends on the buses’ destination, or where they come from.”
For the Rosh Hashana break coming up at the end of this month, Escape already has nine full buses bringing students to places across New York state. The organization had to set a separate holiday price of $70 round trip to make up for the price of the extra buses.
Escape, although supported by the Student Association, is not a funded organization.
“Our revenues go to our expenses,” he said. “When there is a deficit the SA can help us handle it, which is the situation right now.”
In addition to the increase in prices, Escape is currently looking for a new drop-off and pick-up destination in Nassau County, since the Carle Place stop at Roosevelt Field Mall is no longer accessible to the buses.
“It has been an ongoing dispute,” Criscuolo explained. “We had phone calls last semester from the mall management saying [the buses] can’t stop there anymore due to safety and liability concerns.”
Escape has also looked into making stops at Nassau Community College as well as Nassau Coliseum or other malls as options, but they’ve had no luck yet in finding a new location. Escape still has a drop-off/pick-up destination in Huntington, Long Island, off of the Long Island Expressway.
“Students have not been happy [about the change in drop-off locations], but they are still willing to take Escape over Greyhound since it is still less expensive,” Criscuolo said. “Some students have even been getting dropped off in Manhattan and taking the train to Long Island.”
Although unhappy, students said they understand the increase in Escape ticket prices.
“It was very convenient to take Escape home last year,” said Lindsay Gelb, a sophomore from Plainview majoring in biology. “I would still choose Escape over Short Line this year, but the price increase is going to be hard to keep up with.”
Gelb said she still feels that if she was to take a bus home for a school break, she would prefer to take Escape over a public bus since it picks up students on campus and the passengers consist of only Binghamton University students.
Escape tickets are sold in the Escape office, room 320 of the New University Union. Tickets for the Yom Kippur break go on sale Thursday, Oct. 2.