Allowing Sycamore residents to use the Huskie Bus Line Route 9 is a logical idea which should have been implemented when the route started.

The Student Association Mass Transit Board recently has discussed the feasibility of allowing Sycamore residents to use the Huskie Bus Line after buying a $40 bus pass or paying daily fares. Sycamore residents currently are not allowed to use the bus.

A contract between the SAMTB, Sycamore and American Transit Corporation which would allow Sycamore’s citizens to ride the bus could be signed by Friday.

The basic reason for expanding the service is to increase revenue. Board members feel that with the current system not enough students are using the route to justify the money spent on the bus. In fact, in one survey last spring 65 percent of the off-campus students polled said they would not use a bus that has a route through Sycamore.

Board Chairman Dave Emerick said the SA is losing money on the service but the route could turn into a “revenue maker” if the contract is completed.

Allowing Sycamore residents to use the route is such a logical idea, one wonders why they were not allowed to pay for the service when that particular route began. Expanding the service to people who pay fares or purchase passes has no foreseeable problems—only advantages.

The expansion would be controversial if the route were already used heavily by students. But few students use the bus.

Letting the people of Sycamore ride the bus will increase the ridership and the revenue gained off a bus which was already running through Sycamore anyway.

Intelligent decisions such as this show that untapped money can be found without asking the students to dig into their pockets.