Nothing is more frustrating than returning to campus from an amazing spring break, only to find oneself stranded at the Palo Alto Caltrain station. It’s a long walk to the dorms, and two bags of luggage full of mementos from the Bahamas don’t make it any easier. If all goes as planned, Parking and Transportation will spare countless students from this dismal fate with a long-overdue increase in the free Marguerite shuttle service on the weekends surrounding spring break—May 24 and April 1.

During spring break, some 8,000 Stanford students depart for fun and exciting vacation spots around the globe. But before they can hit the beaches or return to campus afterward, many of those students must first get to the Caltrain station via train (from the San Jose airport) or the KX bus (from SFO).

In years past, getting from the dorms to the Caltrain station and back was a serious damper on spring break joviality. Parking and Transportation Services would only run the sparse weekend Margaruite schedule, if it actually ran any buses at all. The irony, of course, is that many students only use public transportation at the beginning or end of breaks. During the rest of the school year, students often find rides or use the cars they keep on campus, but, the one time students need it most, P&TS offers scant options. Encouraging public transportation is always environmentally responsible, but the beginning and end of spring break represent a special opportunity to reach a larger group of students. Now, P&TS has taken a first step to fix this problem by announcing a new, expanded spring break service that will pick up students and meet Caltrain trains at the beginning of break from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, March 24 and again at the end of break when students return to campus from 12 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Sunday, April 1.

This sounds good on paper, and we at The Daily commend P&TS’s effort. We know, however, that implementation is not always easy — at least two students we talked to were left stranded when their bus didn’t arrive at Tressider on Saturday morning despite the new schedule. After waiting 20 minutes past the stated arrival time, they ended up walking across campus. Hopefully P&TS fixed this problem by April 1. But even so, P&TS leaves those students who arrive on the Saturday before classes with a long walk or wait ahead of them.

Even given this room for improvement, we commend P&TS for listening to student’s needs and for making spring break that much more accessible.