This was announced today....



To: Members of the Washington University Community



I am very pleased to announce an important new program for Washington University full-time students, benefits-eligible faculty and staff, and full-time employees of qualified service providers who perform daily tasks.



Effective July 1, those eligible may request a Metro Universal pass from

the University that will provide FREE access to the entire Metro transit

system, including buses and light-rail that serve St. Louis City and

County and Madison and St. Clair Counties in Illinois. The pass, along

with your University ID, will enable you to use Metro to commute to and

from the campus, travel from one campus to another, or for your personal use to access locations throughout the metropolitan region.



Washington University has signed an agreement to pay Metro for this

service and is one of a few institutions in the country to provide this

type of program. Not only will it offer a convenient and inexpensive way

to travel from one location to another, but it also will open up numerous

new opportunities for members of our community and give strong, visible

support for public transit in the region. The Metro pass offers an

important alternative to facing rising gasoline and parking prices and

avoiding significant congestion due to highway and road construction

planned in the near future.



Please go to http://transportation.wustl.edu to learn more about this

program. The link will also provide information about how this new program will affect our University shuttle services. I encourage you to request the pass when it becomes available later this year.



Mark S. Wrighton

YESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope this includes Grad Students!!!!!!!!

I'm not sure how the UMSL program works, but one thing to keep in mind (which the Chancellor's message doesn't quite convey) is that Wash U is dropping most of their shuttle routes. So, many Wash U students will be "forced" to use Metro to get from the West End to campus or to go from West Campus in Clayton to the Med School, etc. Maybe once they start riding, they'll ride it elsewhere too. At least we can hope. This should really add quite a few riders to the Metro system, particularly once I-64 construction starts.

The discounted student passes that UMSL offered were also ripe for abuse by non-students as no ID was needed to prove to bus drivers or fare checkers. I'm sure WashU students are 'paying' for this program in their tuition.



Still, I think it's important that universities in the St. Louis area offer incentives to students who use mass transit or even better subsidize it like WashU is doing. For many students this is the only option to get around town.

Yeah but you can just park there. They are soooo lax on enforcement. I took a summer class there once and they told me 300 for those three months, that's when I laughed at the lady and said at their ticket rate of $50 a ticket the'd have to catch me 6 tmes that summer. They caught me once so I parked that semester for $50. Had I been taking more than one class I'd of paid, but $300 for 3 hours 2x a week for an 8 week coures is price gouging.

UMSL has a similar student pass that comes out of tuition. In addition to WashU's great MetroLink connectivity like UMSL, new bus routes like the "Central West End," "City Limits" and intentionally named "Washington University" will go many of the same places and more as current university shuttle service. Many of these "new" routes are rebranding of older routes like Lindell, Delmar, etc. However, the rebranding, plus new MetroLink service lured WashU into adopting student passes. And by having this guaranteed revenue stream, it helps Metro's bottom-line.

TheWayoftheArch wrote:(which i think is a fallacy, but hey I went to CSU where you had to walk for 1/2 mile to get from the student lots, so the farthest UMSL parking space is nothing to me. The Garages East of the Millenium student center are never both full, but the auto ariented mentality just says that the addition 200 feet you have to walk is just too much. The real issue at Umsl is that their are too few parking sapaces within spitting distance of the classroom buildings. Sorry for the rant, but the laziness/ crybabyness of this issue at our school kills me. I mena this dominates our student paper...pathetic.)

I gotta agree with you here if what you say about UMSL students thinking there is not enough parking is true. UMSL is such a small campus that really any parking spot is so close you can get to class in like 10 min or less. At Purdue we had to park ultra far away, if we wanted to drive, on the student lot and bus into campus, and freshmen were not even allowed cars. I quickly tired of this and moved into a house right on campus as soon as my apartment lease was up since my apartment was quite a ways off of campus. We had garages the were right at the edge of campus, but they were for faculty and seniors only basically. When you build more parking, you just create more demand, thus why they made us park so far away. UMSL should be happy to have all the parking it does already.

wow, good to hear. Lots of Wash U people live in a campus/Loop/Forest Park/Schnucks bubble that is hard to break. Getting them to use the mass transit system should definitely put them at greater ease in getting around the city.

My question is "why"? Don't get me wrong, this is very positive, but what's their motive? Is there a financial slant here? Is it more than that? For the better good? This is unchartered territory so I'm just asking why?

loftlover wrote:My question is "why"? Don't get me wrong, this is very positive, but what's their motive? Is there a financial slant here? Is it more than that? For the better good? This is unchartered territory so I'm just asking why?

I think one reason is because Wash U likes to believe that it is the "best" school in STL, so they didn't want to be trumped by other institutions that already offered this service. Another reason is because I think Wash U prides itself on being urban minded and forward thinking, so it only makes sense that they support public transit. Three, it is in their interest to have the stations on their campus in heavy use to keep them safe and appear friendly for visitors to the university.

i think a big part is also financial. They had a small fleet of shuttles moving students and faculty back and forth between the different campuses, surrounding neighborhoods and between campus and different shopping places (i.e Schnucks, Target, Galleria). I forget the exact figure, but a friend once told me how much it cost to run the shuttle service, and it was exorbitant. With metrolink connecting the three campuses, i'm guessing that knocked out the need for several of the more active shuttles, and it probably wasn't cost effective to keep the other shuttles around just for shopping.



But beyond just dollars and cents, i do think MistaCO1 has a point in terms of the university trying to engage the city more. The university has gradually been encouraging students to explore and connect with the city, really make the city part of the educational growth process.



Anywho, as St. Louis goes, so does the university. It's a lot easier to recruit top notch academics when you can show them a vibrant city with lots to offer, and easy connections to the campus. Not to mention students who often have options to study in New York, Chicago, Boston, LA, etc etc. The context of the university helps color people's impression of it. Luckily the university already has a pretty awesome location, but the mass transit connectivity just makes it all the cooler.

All around it's a win-win-win-ad infinitum. Metro gets a dedicated revenue source. WashU doesn't have to provide its own shuttles. Students get faster and broader service. St. Louis gets better exposure as a place to live a less auto-dependent, more urban lifestyle.

ComandanteCero wrote:i think a big part is also financial. They had a small fleet of shuttles moving students and faculty back and forth between the different campuses, surrounding neighborhoods and between campus and different shopping places (i.e Schnucks, Target, Galleria). I forget the exact figure, but a friend once told me how much it cost to run the shuttle service, and it was exorbitant. With metrolink connecting the three campuses, i'm guessing that knocked out the need for several of the more active shuttles, and it probably wasn't cost effective to keep the other shuttles around just for shopping.



But beyond just dollars and cents, i do think MistaCO1 has a point in terms of the university trying to engage the city more. The university has gradually been encouraging students to explore and connect with the city, really make the city part of the educational growth process.



Anywho, as St. Louis goes, so does the university. It's a lot easier to recruit top notch academics when you can show them a vibrant city with lots to offer, and easy connections to the campus. Not to mention students who often have options to study in New York, Chicago, Boston, LA, etc etc. The context of the university helps color people's impression of it.

Indeed. SLU's mentality is the same (sort of).

I am from WashU and it is fantastic that they are doing this. This is also so benificial for the schools recruitment reputation. Being connected to downtown easily will also help them to keep their policy of not allowing freshmen to drive. I missed out on this by one year, but good for the future classes.



The school also managed to get two of the nicer stations on the entire track, and it probably won't be long until the station at the med school is changed when they finish redesigning that area of the med school. Since the tracks travel directly under prime land for installing buildings on some of the most valuable land in the area.

clellchatman wrote:I am from WashU and it is fantastic that they are doing this. This is also so benificial for the schools recruitment reputation. Being connected to downtown easily will also help them to keep their policy of not allowing freshmen to drive. I missed out on this by one year, but good for the future classes.



The school also managed to get two of the nicer stations on the entire track, and it probably won't be long until the station at the med school is changed when they finish redesigning that area of the med school. Since the tracks travel directly under prime land for installing buildings on some of the most valuable land in the area.

This agreement between Metro and Washington University took several years to be worked out. If you read the original consultant bus plans for Cross County, you will note that Wash U's shuttles were anticipated to continue even after the startup of Cross County. As late at as 2004, this decision was repeated to Metro by Wash U staff.



The key to the agreement, however, depended more on the changes in the Metrobus routes (the new 01 WUSTL Gold and 02 WUSTL Red) that the completion of the Metrolink stations on the campus. Without MetroRedefined and the restructured routes, the Wash U agreement would not have taken place.



For any agreement like this to occur, it requires that both parties gain through the decision. Metro's had three objectives. First, by bringing the 500,000 annual Wash U shuttle boardings onto the Metrobus system, it replaces some of the potentially lost ridership on the bus system as some park ride passengers shift to Metrolink. Metrobus ridership in Illinois dropped significantly as commuters shifted to Metrolink.



Second, Metro needs to expand its markets beyond the primary market of transit dependent poor. Metro need to build a broadbased coalition of transit supporters to be able sell the region on the need to enact a new tax in St.Louis County to help Metro keep its system in operation. Bringing in the University Community can not hurt in that effort.



Third, Metro has had a Universal pass program at UMLS and SWIC for many years. These programs were priced too low and actually resulted in a substantial reduction in the average fare. The Wash U program allowed Metro to reprice these programs for all University's in a way that the average fare will increase. The revenue for these programs will increase at rate of wage inflation every year even if overall fares do not increase. Metro believes it will be important to show the non transit tax payer that it has maximized farebox revenue to the extent possible. Three fare increases in three years (while ridership is still increasing) and more appropriatedly priced univesal passes are part of the strategy.



Wash U has expressed several reasons for seeking this program. Saving money is most likely not one of the reasons. The cost of the program will probably exceed their shuttle costs, but the program will be able to offer much more transportation for comparable expenses. All Wash U Hilltop and Med School employees and some contractors will have access to a pass to get to and from work. The shuttle system never offered that benefit so universally.

What a hyperbole!



This save WashU tens of millions in the future on parking garage after parking garage after parking garage while continuing to build, expand, and add more students and faculty.



At Missouri State we relied on Federal dollars (thank you Bond and Talent) for our only two parking garages each priced nearly $10 million in order to avoid replacing another five blocks of dense (crappy college renting but some historic) housing for superblock parking lots.



This is WashU's limited option unless they want to destory the surrounding neighborhoods for parking garages. Despite, the costs it does benefit Metrolink as accessible to job centers/colleges and connect the community to the university. I cannot say enought how important it is for a university to build community [current trend] as opposed to the 1960s/1970s ignoring community building.



Thanks Busdad for the incite that we all thirst for > can I have a martini with that?

^Where is the emoticon for wincing?