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Throughout the 2022-2023 school year, many students would arrive past the 8:00 a.m. bell, due a late arrival from the Metro buses.

“Since last year, my attendance has been better,” Logan Remotigue, ‘25, said. “I have been late to class much less frequently and usually it’s [only by] minute or two. The time it took to get to school varied more [last year] as well.”

Last year, many students would arrive late to school almost daily. There would be weekly announcements asking teachers to excuse students due to late Metro bus arrivals. This year, we haven’t had one yet.

“I haven’t had any issues with getting to school on time yet,” Ethan Bischer, ‘29, said. “I have not been able to get on the bus because there were too many people on it.”

Even though the Metro is improving, there are still issues with the amount of people trying to board the bus. The Metro started going through corrective phases, starting last year with phase one which made minor changes to some route schedules.

“I haven’t noticed any changes. Every day two buses come just like last year. There are newer buses. I haven’t seen those ugly 90s buses in a while,” Remotigue said.

Remotigue takes route 24 to school every day.

Right now Metro is in phase two, which took effect in late 2022. The phase mostly consists of redesigning and adding bus routes. Meetings took place from Oct. 3 to Oct. 19. There have been changes to the following routes: 4, 11, 16, 17, 20, 33, 43, 46, 51 and 78. Which all have increased frequencies and three of these routes are now 24 hour services. Unfortunately for Remotigue, these changes have not affected his route yet.

“With the passage of Issue 7 in the spring of 2020, Hamilton County voters approved a sales tax levy of 0.8% and a new funding source for Metro. With improved funding, Metro is bringing to life its Reinventing Metro plan, offering the Greater Cincinnati region bold, new transit innovations that will help grow the regional economy and better connect our community to jobs, education, health care and entertainment,” according to the Metro website.

Some students choose to do homework or read on the bus, while others use their cell phone, listen to music or just wait, due to a lack of room or service on the buses. When a student is forced to stand on a bus there isn’t a lot of room to break out a computer or cell phone.

Even though the Metro experience has improved for many people, there are also some that need improvement.