New buses are on the way.

Students can look forward to riding in the new buses by the spring semester, the Student Association Mass Transit Board announced Monday night.

Doug Sammons, fiscal adviser to the board, said they must decide when to begin promoting the six new buses.

“Our buses should be here around Thanksgiving,” said SAMTB Adviser Pat Sanchez.

All of the six buses will be equipped with wheelchair lifts. Three of them will have the capacity to carry two wheelchairs each. The others will have the capacity to hold one wheelchair each with the option of boosting that capacity to two.

The new buses are just one plan on the mass transit board’s docket for the 1991-92 school year. Another major project the board is working on is surveying the bus stops, Sanchez said. This will be a long-term project, he said.

Bus stops must be surveyed to determine how accessible some of the stops are to handicapped people, said Gary Jones, assistant board director.

Also, NIU’s Late Nite Ride Service might be expanded to a week-long program, Sanchez said. For now, however, it’s only an experiment. There is also the possibility of adding a third car to the service.

Sanchez also said the board is looking into providing a family pass which would help riders save money, adding “with the recession, money is tight.”

Students also should know soon how much they’ll have to pay next year for bus service. Sammons said he already is working on the budget and would like to have an estimate for the fees to cover the added services the board is planning.