The Tufts Community Union (TCU) Senate is working with Savique, a transportation company founded this year by Tufts alumnus RaoulAlwani (LA '10), to introduce a new shuttle from the Medford/Somerville campus to Boston. The new service is designed to make planning trips into the city more convenient for students.
Under the proposed plan, students would be able to use the website Savique.com to coordinate travel to and from the city by booking a shuttle whenever enough interest is generated for an event.
The website is already up and running, and students can currently book a shuttle costing between $12 and $15 roundtrip, according to Alwani. Savique is working with Senate to subsidize the cost of riding the shuttle to make it less expensive for students.
"Savique came from us trying to make it easier for groups of friends to do cool and fun things in real life," Alwani said in an email to the Daily. "There's a lot of technology used to keep us connected online, and with Savique we wanted to use technology to help bring people together offline."
In order to use the service, students must go onto the website and register for an event. If enough people sign up for the event before the registration timer runs out, those who have signed up will be charged for their ticket and the bus runs. If not enough people register, no one will be charged.
With a purchased ticket, a student can ride the shuttle to and from Boston an unlimited number of times that night, according to Savique Marketing and Sales Intern Benjamin Beede (LA '11).
In addition to allowing students to register custom events online, Savique's website has a list of Boston events each weekend and is working on the possibility of linking its website with Facebook so that students can see which of their friends have registered for an event.
Savique has already launched at Gordon College, located north of Boston. The school started the shuttle program about a month and a half ago, according to Beede. Beede said that the company is also working with a few other colleges in the Boston area, though no others have launched services yet.
Beede thinks a shuttle with Savique would be convenient for students who want to go into Boston, especially at night.
"You don't have to worry about parking, last call, when the T closes, drunk driving … and try finding a cab at two in the morning," he said.
Savique currently has everything in place to start running but is waiting for TCU senators to decide if they think this is something that students would be interested in. If the Senate concludes that this is a worthwhile venture, Savique will look to it for assistance in working out the details for the Tufts-specific service and to generate interest within the student body, according to Beede.
Sophomore senator Lia Weintraub, co-chair of the Services Committee, thinks that Savique has the potential to be a helpful service for Tufts students.
"I think their biggest draw is that they go into Boston and they work past the time of the T," Weintraub said. "I think it's something that the student body could benefit from."
Senior Edward Chao also works with Savique and is involved with connecting Savique and Senate.
"The Senate has been helpful, and they seem excited about it," Beede said.
With support from the university, the shuttle could be available to students in as little as two to three weeks, according to Beede.
"We have the system ready, and we have the buses ready," Beede said. "If you gave me 50 people that wanted to go to Boston this weekend, we have the resources to make that happen."
Tufts has used other shuttle services to Boston in the past that have since been cancelled, including the Boston Bus Shuttle, which Senate cut in the spring of 2009.
Alwani believes Savique is more financially efficient than previous shuttles to Boston.
"Previously the shuttle would run regardless of the number of people using it, which was a heavy fixed-cost for the school to bear each week — that's why I believe they canceled it," he said.
Beede noted that Savique would provide an important service to Tufts students, many of whom currently do not take advantage of Tufts' proximity to Boston.
"We want to bring back to Tufts the idea that there is this amazing city with all of these crazy things you can do," Beede said.
