KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Daily Wildcat Cat Tran driver Don Wirth holds open the shuttle door for passengers Tuesday afternoon on his route around UA. The Cat Tran offers a free transportation service to students on campus, with a few destinations off-campus.

On his first day as a Cat Tran driver, Artie Eck realized he was dealing with no ordinary band of passengers.

While driving around campus, Eck said he started singing and got a complaint from a passenger who apparently did not enjoy his complimentary rendition of a song on the radio.

"Boy, it's a hard crowd I'm dealing with," Eck said good-humoredly.

Although some people might mind the singing, it hasn't kept them off the shuttle.

The number of Cat Tran boarders has jumped about 15 percent since last year. By the end of this year, the Cat Tran will have shuttled about 460,000 people - compared to 400,000 people last year - said Gary Thomson, associate director of Parking and Transportation Services.

Cat Tran has been running since 1988, expanding every few years to accommodate the growing number of people wanting a ride.

Charles Franz, the program coordinator for Alternative Transportation, said more people are riding the Cat Tran because the service was expanded this year. Stops were added, routes were changed, park-and-ride lots were increased from three to seven. Three shuttles now also travel to the Arizona Health Sciences Center.

This is probably the best job I've ever had, because it's fun. I talk to people from all over the world. - Jim Turner, Cat Tran driver

Tonyela Arphul, a theatre arts sophomore, said she started riding the Cat Tran last semester to save money.

"If you park far away from campus and you have to get to a class that's far away, you can get onto the Cat Tran, which is really convenient transportation," she said.

Arphul said she used to spend about $30 per week parking in garages.

"A lot of times you can't find parking ... or the garage is full. Or you don't want to pay $6 or $4 for a certain amount of time," Arphul said.

PTS, which spends about $1 million on Cat Tran each year, plans to expand the Cat Tran service; its next goal is to provide nighttime transportation for people who stay late in the evening, so they won't have to move their cars around, Thomson said.

For many Cat Tran drivers, like Jim Turner, serving the expanding UA community is a rewarding experience.

"This is probably the best job I've ever had, because it's fun," Turner said. "I talk to people from all over the world."

Cat Tran driver Chico Pacheco said he often talks to his steady passenger, fine arts freshman Alyssa Robinet, about politics, sports and current events.

Robinet, who knows her drivers by their first names, said, "I get along with them pretty well."

Pacheco said, when driving around, he makes safety his top priority. He said driving around campus is frustrating at times because he has to watch out for absent-minded students hurrying to class, careless drivers and busy construction sites.

Cat Tran has an excellent safety record because Cat Tran drivers cause very few accidents, Thomson said.

In 2002, Cat Tran experienced two accidents, and the drivers were not cited, he said. Since January, Cat Tran drivers were involved in six accidents and cited for two of them.

There were 204 vehicle accidents on campus in 2002, including hit-and-run, bike, automobile and property accidents, said Celia Soto, a senior office specialist at UAPD.

Although Cat Tran drivers do face problems at times, many say they still enjoy working for the UA community.

"In most cases, we're the first university staff they will encounter on a daily basis and the last one at the end of the day," Pacheco said. "We feel proud about it."

Aside from providing transportation around campus, the Cat Tran program also permits people to take advantage of the park-and-ride service by using shuttles to transport them from designated parking lots off campus to the UA campus free of charge. But riders have to pay for the parking, Thomson said.

Pacheco said that after his last round, he knows he did a good day's work in a safe manner.

"The goodbyes are nice because you know you will see them the following day," Pacheco said.