For the first time, Alabama’s Miles College will have its own buses for students to use to travel, on and off campus and to area destinations, courtesy of the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority’s (BJCTA) MAX Transit.

MAX Transit recently donated two 40-foot buses to Miles, a historically Black college in the town of Fairfield, just west of Birmingham.

“Our buses are good buses,” said Charlotte Shaw, executive director and CEO of MAX Transit. “I can’t keep them in useful life for a long time,” Shaw explained.

Because of federal regulations, “I can do only 700,000 miles or 15 years, whichever comes first. And, of course, most of the time I meet my miles first.”

Shaw said the transit system happened to have “two really good buses” that can now benefit students at Miles.

“If you go to Miles College and don’t have a car, you can’t get around,” said Bobbie Knight, president of Miles College. She said she was grateful to Shaw, because the public bus service doesn’t extend into Fairfield.

The two met for dinner shortly after Shaw delivered her January “State of the Transit” address at Birmingham’s Boutwell Auditorium. During dinner, Knight asked the transit chief what happens after buses are disposed of. Shaw said they are sometimes put up for auction and sometimes sold for a dollar.

Knight said to Shaw, “If you have any after this next round of disposal, keep Miles in mind because I’d love to have two of those buses.”

That same evening Shaw called with good news, telling Knight, “Hey, all you have to do is pay a dollar for each. It’s an in-kind donation. I will get them cleaned up and delivered.

“And that’s what we did,” Shaw said.

“She was true to her word,” Knight said of Shaw.

Members of the MAX Transit team join Miles College President Bobbie Knight during the bus donation ceremony. (MAX Transit)

Knight said the college doesn’t have any bus drivers; Shaw noted that many of BJCTA’s drivers moonlight part-time and agreed to share contacts. Knight said Shaw also offered to work with the college on a maintenance plan for the buses.

“We would rather have her people maintain the buses because they know the buses,” Knight said.

The buses are now on campus, with the school planning to wrap them in its colors: purple and gold. “It’s going to cost $9,000 per bus to wrap them. I have to find a sponsor. I think we have one; we’ll put their logo on the side of the bus,” Knight said.

She added that the college has plenty of potential uses for the vehicles, including shopping trips for the students.

“Fairfield is a food desert,” Knight said. “There’s not a Walmart. There’s nowhere to go for toiletries and shopping.”

She said the college can also use them for “student trips downtown, to the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute or the Birmingham Museum of Art.” She said the buses might also be used to take students to away-games for Miles sports teams, or on recruiting trips. “When we go recruit to high schools, particularly around the area, when we pull, up we’re branded.”

Shaw said the bus donations are just the start of a relationship with Miles that will only grow.

“I would love to help out Miles,” she said, noting its importance as among the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

“It’s about partnerships, and it’s really our responsibility to HBCUs and higher education to ensure that they have what they need.”

A version of this story originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.