Committee Proposes New College Transit Pass Program

By Jane Phan

On July 29, the MBTA Rider Oversight Committee proposed a plan to revamp the current college student MBTA pass program in hopes of generating revenue to fund late-night transportation services.

Under the proposed “U-Pass Program,” Boston-area colleges and universities that opt in would buy discounted student passes for their entire student bodies. These passes could generate “tens of millions of dollars in additional revenue” for the MBTA, according to the report proposing the U-Pass program. This money would be used to fund overnight service, which the report estimates would cost less than $10 million per year.

The report states that if just half of Boston-area college students were given an unlimited transit pass, the MBTA would gain revenue of about $43 million each year.

The report refers to the already-in-use college pass programs employed in the Milwaukee, Chicago, and San Francisco areas. All three programs feature limitless bus and train rides for all undergraduate students during the terms, a discount of at least 50 percent, and “fulfillment of design while being profitable for the transit agency”.

One aspect that the U-Pass would adopt from the already-existing college train pass programs is having the students vote on whether or not their university would participate in the program. The report says that the proposal will mostly benefit students and the MBTA. However, there are minimal benefits for others, such as universities and colleges or other motorists/cyclists.

Harvard students seem to agree that the proposal will benefit most of the student community, if accepted by the MBTA.

“It would definitely benefit the students, because college students, given that we don’t really have income, can save up some money toward daily living and education. The public transportation system in Boston is not cheap,” said rising-Harvard junior Dan Li .

However, some students are wondering how the funding will benefit the colleges and universities possibly participating.

“It will definitely encourage students to explore Boston more, especially those that may not be able to afford it otherwise. On the other hand, this extra cost may take away from the schools’ ability to pay for scholarships, etc., which I feel is more important,” said another rising junior, Bridget Gosis.

The ROC has been working on the proposal for months, preparing over multiple public meetings with the MBTA. Their primary goal was to improve college students’ MBTA involvement and to produce funds for overnight service. The ROC was initially working on the two issues separately; a few committee members were researching ways to administer overnight service while other members were interested in implementing a U-Pass program for college students.

James Jay, co-chairman of the ROC, was pleased with the combination of the two ideas. When trying to find ways to pitch the U-Pass program to university administrators, it became apparent that overnight MBTA service and a U-Pass program would definitely be beneficial to each other. “We felt that joining the two programs together would be a winning situation all-around.” Jay said.

When asked if he thought the MBTA would accept the proposal, Jay replied, “I am confident that the MBTA will take our proposal seriously and crunch all of the numbers on their own. I am pretty sure that the MBTA will separate overnight service from the U-Pass program and weigh them individually. If either one of them goes through, though, we will consider our proposal a success.”