University of Minnesota and Metro Transit cut cost of transit pass to get more students aboard trains, buses

The University of Minnesota and Metro Transit have teamed up this year to offer steeply discounted passes to encourage students to leave their cars at home and take the train or bus to class.

For sophomore Joshua Taylor, the Universal Transit Pass has been a godsend.

"It's convenient," he said about taking the bus from the house he rents in St. Paul to campus. "It drops me off a block from my house and saves me about an hour a day walking. It's great."

Taylor, who is majoring in math and music, didn't take the bus much during his first year at the U. Now he takes the bus almost every day.

Before the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020, the U offered students on its Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses transit passes for $114 per semester. About 15,000 students bought them.

Now the U is charging students a $71 transportation and safety fee per semester, which includes the cost of a transit pass. It also covers the costs of operating the campus shuttle service and the Safe Walk program, which provides free police escorts to locations on or near campus.

The fee activates a chip on the ID cards that 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students use to access buildings and check out library books. The IDs will double as a transit pass that's good for unlimited rides on Metro Transit, Maple Grove Transit, SouthWest Transit and the Minnesota Valley Transit Authority.

Shashank Murali and the student government lobbied the past few years to reduce transportation costs and improve access to off-campus housing, jobs, health care and food. The U is served by the Green Line and several local and express bus routes,

"The old pass was expensive," Murali said. "Our goal was to make sure we have a pass that provided accessibility to transit."

The U had a vested interest, too, said Ross Allanson, director of Parking and Transportation Services.

"As parking director, my role is to encourage people not to drive to campus and park," he said. "As we increase students taking transit, we are going to see fewer cars on campus. That will help with parking, climate change and other sustainable elements. This is a win-win."

U students swipe and tag their cards between 9,000 and 11,000 times each weekday. Transit ridership among U students has doubled on weekends compared to last year, said Metro Transit spokesman Drew Kerr.

Metro Transit also is offering the Universal passes at Augsburg University, Macalester College, Anoka Ramsey Community College, Anoka Technical College and Normandale Community College.

"Introducing students to transit not only helps them while they're in school, on a budget and often without a vehicle, but also helps create lifelong transit use habits that we hope will continue in their professional lives," said Wes Kooistra, Metro Transit's general manager.