ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. — A group of students at the University of Central Florida are sharing concerns about the changes coming to some bus routes in Seminole County.

What You Need To Know

Next year some of the fixed routes that Lynx operates in Seminole County will be phased out — one of those routes is the Lynx 434, which runs the entirety of that state highway from Seminole State College in Altamonte Springs to the UCF campus

Instead, the county introduced Scout, a door-to-door on-demand service launched on Oct. 15

Some UCF students and staff said they are not happy with the change and started a petition that got more than 70 signatures rejecting it

Scout rides start at $4 for trips within a single zone, but students will get a discount and will pay $1.75 per ride

Out of the 11 fixed Lynx bus routes that currently operate in the county, six of them will be eliminated — one of those routes is the Lynx 434, which runs the entirety of that state highway from Seminole State College in Altamonte Springs to the UCF campus.

“So if you live in Seminole County and you are a student or a faculty member who wants to get to the UCF campus instead of a Lynx bus, now you’ll be able to take Scout,” said Seminole County commissioner Amy Lockhart.

Scout is a door-to-door on-demand service launched by the county on Oct. 15. But UCF graduate student Hannah Hendrickson, who rides the Lynx 434 route frequently to and from the UCF campus, says students and staff are not happy with the change.

“Everybody who I did talk to about it was opposed to the changes. I talked to literally dozens of people and not a single one of them said they would have preferred Scout over the buses,” Hendrickson said.

Hendrickson started a petition and collected more than 70 signatures from students and UCF staff opposing the service change to the route — saying they rejected the plan.

“If there are less people on buses, that means they’re going to be more people driving on the roads,” said UCF student Matthew Morales-Karakadze. “Additionally, a really big problem that UCF has is parking. More people are going to be driving because more people are going to be parking garages, and that’s just going to create an even bigger hassle than it already is for me.”

Scout rides start at $4 for trips within a single zone — but Lockhart says students will get a discount.

“We are in conversation with Seminole State and UCF talking about the discount. So, if you are a student, automatically you can apply for and get a discount for your ride. So it’ll be $1.75 for your ride as a student,” Lockhart said.

But Hendrickson says, even with the discount, it would still be a burden for students and staff who ride the buses for free.

“That’s $1.75 more per trip, up to two, maybe four times a day that they didn’t have to pay. And what about people who work at UCF and depend on the bus … janitors, landscapers … they take the bus every day,” Hendrickson said.

According to Lynx, in the fiscal year 2025 the 434 route had a ridership of about 119,000 customers. But Lockhart says since Scout launched, only about six students have used it from Seminole County to and from UCF.

“It’s one of the reasons why the Lynx route was eliminated, because there are not a lot of students from Seminole County utilizing public transportation to get to UCF campus,” she said. “We know that there are students and that they need that connectivity. And that’s why we’ve provided Scout. And it’s a much more direct option for them.”

The changes will go into effect on Jan. 11, 2026.

Lynx officials said they will still offer Lynx routes 13 and 104 to UCF. Students with their UCF ID will still be able to ride Lynx services for free.