Students who frequent the South Parking Lot may have noticed a thing or two different this semester. Last summer, parts of the lot had been repaved and new “pads,” waiting areas where students waits for a specific bus, had been poured. Recently one such pad, the waiting area for the Hospital/Chapin bus route, finally received a shelter for passengers to wait under.

“We are pretty progressive and continuous in terms of making sure there are shelters out there for our passengers — our customers – to wait in,” said James O’Connor, the director of transportation and parking operations for Stony Brook University Transit.

O’Connor said it had become apparent that staff and students going to the medical center wanted a shelter of their own.

“The express bus actually has a hut [in South P] and the feedback we were receiving was that passengers would like a similar shelter for the Chapin bus route,” O’Connor said.

The new shelter was constructed by Colombia Bus Shelter Company. This is the same Queens-based company that was contracted to build the shelters already campus. Because of this, the new shelter looks like all its fellow shelters, if a bit less weather-worn.

Officials in Stony Brook Transit says they expect students to be happy with the new shelter. Still, the one question that is likely on many of their minds is: what took so long?

“It has been always in our plan to put a bus shelter out there. It was just a matter of going through the normal state procurement process,” O’Connor said.

SBU Transit ideally wanted the shelter constructed the same day the pad was made, but because of a lengthy state procurement process, the project was not started until two months later, according to O’Connor.

This project is only the beginning of a much larger project. O’Connor said that there are already plans to build a shelter over the new Benedict bus stop, as well as a series of new pay stations for several parking lots, each station with its own corresponding shelter. He said things will get rolling towards the completion of these plans within the next few months.

Still, some students said that the new shelter is more than enough. Christina Todzia, a commuter and nursing student, was found sitting under the newly constructed shelter.

“It will keep my head dry when it rains,” Todzia said. “That’s enough to keep me happy.”