Shuttle to Charlotte takes off

Dan Sarantopoulos invites you to take a ride to Douglas Airport, $49 each way. Last February 23, Columbia's Dan Sarantopoulos started commuting passengers from Columbia to Charlotte's Douglas Airport. The trip can be taken by taxi cab for $200, one way, but Sarantopoulos does it for $49.

The business is called Columbia Charlotte Shuttle, Inc., and Sarantopoulos is the sole proprietor.

When Sarantopoulos was in the U.S. Army, stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga., just outside Columbus, he learned the high convenience and the low cost of riding for an hour and a half in an eight- passenger van between Columbus and the Atlanta airport. That shuttle service is called Groome Transportation, and it is something of a model for Columbia Charlotte Shuttle. Groome leaves Columbus for the Atlanta airport every half- hour.

To take a Greyhound bus from Columbia to Charlotte one way is to fork over almost $25. The bus service to downtown Charlotte runs three times daily. This writer took the Greyhound out of Columbia around 4:30 am one Saturday to downtown Charlotte recently to get to Douglas Airport before 8 am. From downtown Charlotte the means to get to Douglas Airport was either a cab or a city bus. On my way back the next day, Sunday, and after arriving in downtown Charlotte at 5 pm, the return on the Greyhound put me back in Columbia by 1 am Monday.

Had I known about Columbia Charlotte Shuttle, I could have been dropped off curbside in front of the USAirways terminal and picked up at the same point. In Columbia, the same quality of service would have applied: Picked up at my home address and returned to my home address.

The total time taken round trip would have been no more than four hours, but the way I went took four hours to get to Douglas Airport and eight hours to return from Douglas Airport.

To drive a personal car takes about the same time as the Columbia Charlotte Shuttle, but then there are parking fees and connections with the parking lots.

To hit on a friend or family member for the commute is to ask someone to spend at least six hours total on the road for the two round trips, suffering the wear and tear on the vehicle and burning about $80 in gas.

Columbia is striving to become a visitor's destination attracting people from all over, not all of whom can be expected to drive in and out of Columbia. If the new convention center is to succeed, the cab system must get better, and the bus system must get better. Also, an airport shuttle to Charlotte's Douglas must succeed.

After graduating with a degree in psychology at Providence College (R.I.), Sarantopoulos stayed 10 years in the Army, leaving as a major, Airbone Ranger qualified. He began Columbia Charlotte Shuttle as his own sole employee driving one eightpassenger van. He has expanded to another van and to four part-time drivers.

Sarantopoulos can see expansion to Charleston and maybe even Greenville/Spartanburg. The Columbia- Augusta route and the Augusta- Atlanta connection are already covered by another firm. There could be another leg between Greenville/Spartanburg and Charlotte, about the same distance as from Columbia to Charlotte.

Columbia Charlotte Shuttle is shopping for a home office with a van garage and an underground gasoline tank, ideally where I-77 and I- 20 meet.

The company Web site says it all: www.columbiacharlotteshuttle. com. And call 783.5123 for further information or for a quick ride to Charlotte's Douglas Airport.