Galveston County Daily News, May 1, 2007 GALVESTON - Island Transit's Route 2 buses are full of riders wearing medical branch identification badges, especially during the morning and evening rush hours. Some of the riders are low-wage workers, others are students, but they all depend on the public transportation service to get to and from their University of Texas Medical Branch tasks. Recognizing the importance of the service, medical branch officials agreed to help subsidize the route when the city added it to Island Transit's schedule five years ago. Since 2002, the medical branch has given the city $200,000 each year for Island Transit's trouble, paying for all its employees and patients to ride for free. Next year, the payment could drop to $160,000, and although council members agreed to the new contract terms, they were not happy about it.