Shuttle caters to St. Louis

By Michael Sewall, News Editor
April 3, 2007

Ryan Gladstone

Columbia resident Mark Dutton signs in with MO-X employee Jason Azdell before boarding a shuttle to the St. Louis airport. MO-X runs 17 round trips per day, 12 to St. Louis and five to Kansas City.

While students made their way back to Columbia after spring break this week, some might have been taking a new shuttle service that directly targets students.

Jim Eschen created Tiger Shuttle earlier this year and said his shuttle could cater to students more than others.

One of those other shuttles is MO-X, which is an airport shuttle that runs between Kansas City and St. Louis. The last time MO-X had a competitor, Tiger Air Express, it bought it out in 2004.

Although both parties have said the businesses aren't competitors, MO-X owner Norm Ruebling said he would accept a rival business.

"We've always thought a little competition is good," Ruebling said. "Competition keeps everyone on their toes."

Both Ruebling and Eschen said their respective businesses are different in theory.

"We're more of a complement but providing a little more," Eschen said.

Eschen said in the past six years, he has had three children at MU, and he noticed students didn't always have a safe option to get home.

"It came from my own experience," he said. "I found out that there had been nothing."

Although MO-X had been around during those six years, it has just one drop-off point at the airports in St. Louis and Kansas City.

Eschen said his business would benefit students from St. Louis more than MO-X because of its six drop-off points, including The Galleria mall, Lake St. Louis, I-270 at St. Charles Rock Road, Mid Rivers Mall and the West County Center and South County Center malls.

Although Tiger Shuttle can drop students off closer to home in St. Louis, it doesn't offer any rides to or from Kansas City and only offers two rides per day on weekends.

"They can't go to the airport and we're going further than them," Ruebling said.

Tiger Shuttle offers one-way trips for $30 and $50 round trips, but MO-X prices its rides at $44 one-way and $82 round trip.

Each shuttle service holds 14 people per van, but MO-X also has 29-passenger mini-buses and motor coaches that hold 55 passengers.

Eschen said he hopes 100 percent of his business will come from students, and Ruebling estimated about 25 percent of his customers were students from MU, Columbia College or Stephens College.

Eschen spent nine months gauging whether his business could be successful and said he has considered expanding in the future.

"We're going to see how this goes," Eschen said. "Ideally, we could offer service to other campuses."

Eschen said he discovered confusion within the Missouri Department of Transportation, which didn't properly assign Tiger Shuttle its operating license.

"I called MoDOT and due to a misspelling on one of the forms, I had to spell something right," he said. "Now it looks like everything will be all right."

According to the MoDOT Web site, a shuttle service in Missouri must register for and obtain an operating license before it can legally conduct business.

After a new service receives its operating license, MoDOT informs other shuttle services of the new business' existence.

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Shuttle caters to St. Louis

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