Affordable public transit will soon be extended to many more post-secondary students in B.C., after years of campaigning by student groups.
Under the new U-Pass BC program, students attending publicly-funded schools across the province will be able to purchase a discounted transit pass, expanding the affordable U-Pass program currently offered at institutions like UBC and SFU.
Starting September 1, 2010, the pass will cost students $30, about $50 less than a regularly-priced monthly pass.
"This announcement will positively impact over 100,000 students in our region," said Nimmi Takkar, chairperson of the Canadian Federation of Students BC and a student at Vancouver Community College. "Next year, students will begin to save thousands of dollars on their transit costs."
The province will invest $20 million between now and April 2013 to subsidize the standardized U-Pass in Metro Vancouver. In other regions, funding will be provided "as required" to ensure the student rate remains below $30 a month, according to a press release issued by the province.
No details were available on how many classes a student must be enrolled in to qualify for the reduced-rate pass.
Students at Vancouver Community College, Emily Carr University and Douglas College currently shell out three times as much for a monthly transit pass than students at UBC and SFU, which have had U-Pass programs since 2003.
Existing rates at those schools, which are less than $30 a month, will not change under the new program.
"The U-Pass issue has been ongoing for years," said Takkar, who has been working with the OnePassNow campaign towards a provincial standardization of the pass.
Last October, a OnePassNow rally at Victory Square in Vancouver drew 1,500 students calling for a fair price and standardized pass, according to Takkar.
Robyn Smith is completing a practicum at The Tyee.
4
Login or register to post comments
morechatter
1 year ago
Accessable transit for students
A very, very positive move by BC Transit as it invests in the futures of British Columbians not all Government has to do is also make education accessiable for the average Canadian in BC.
As families are living on nothing while BC Student Loans takes the bulk of their paycheque leaving families going hungry. And paying back those loans as single mom pays $1200 and only a $100 goes to principal. This was to get a crappy health care job that now pays crap; She quit couldn't stand the abuse that was going on with residents in fact got in trouble for sticking up for patient who was slapped.
Grumpy
1 year ago
Deep discounted U-Pass ......
....... will only increase transit fares and the TransLink property tax!
In short, financial disaster!
Mathieu
1 year ago
Excellent, but...
let's hope that the increase in ridership that will certainly materialize as a result of this is complimented with additional service hours. It seems as though the resulting crush of students on the #99 during the original UBC U-Pass implimentation caught Translink off-guard, and there were not enough buses to cope with it.
However, speaking as someone who left the province to seek greener post-secondary pastures (Québec), this makes me happy. It's nice to see a gesture of compassion towards the debt-laden student body from the seemingly short sighted and conservative political establishment of British Columbia.
CanadianLatitude
1 year ago
Are they going to improve
Are they going to improve the bus service then? oops I forgot translink has no money....
Where are the lower bus passes for the working poor in BC's new economy? http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2010/06/02/McBCJobs/