Students call for u-pass
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Updated: September 28, 2009 4:37 PM
Post-secondary students are vowing they won’t let the provincial government dodge its election promise to deliver discounted universal transit passes for all students by next fall.
And they’ve turned to song to drive home the message, circulating a music video on YouTube.
“Looks like somebody forgot about us – standing in the rain, payin’ double for the bus,” students croon on the video.
Surrey student Nimmi Takkar, who takes transit to Vancouver Community College, is an organizer of the One Pass Now campaign and one of thousands of Metro Vancouver students shut out of the discounted pass system.
“Right now I pay $73 a month and that will go up to $81 soon,” Takkar said.
“We are asking for a $25 U-pass for all Metro Vancouver students.”
It’s been a sore point for years – UBC and SFU students have long had TransLink U-passes that are mandatory but give transit service at a deep discount.
But many other students at campuses like VCC, Douglas College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University pay in some cases three times as much for standard monthly passes and say the disparity amounts to discrimination.
Cash-strapped TransLink says its finances don’t currently allow it to expand the transit system, which is prerequisite for issuing more U-passes.
“We don’t have the funds at this point to expand the program any further,” said TransLink spokesperson Judy Rudin.
U-passes are credited with pulling many more transit riders onto the system and reducing car traffic, but TransLink no longer has the extra capacity to handle the demand they create.
Takkar says students aren’t going to back off, despite the financial troubles of TransLink and Victoria.
“The commitment came from the provincial government,” she said.
“They need to work together.”
One Pass Now organizers say a poll of Metro post-secondary students shows 96 per cent want an affordable U-pass made available for the same price to all.
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