UPass offers unlimited mass transit to college students

Imagine having an unlimitedrides pass on all public transit in Connecticut, including MetroNorth. Then imagine this pass only costs $20 a year.

Such is the reality of UPass, the transit pass given to almost 15,000 community college and state university students in Connecticut. Not only does UPass give them affordable access to mass transit, in some cases the pass is a life changer.

“If I didn’t have UPass, I wouldn’t be able to go to school,” says Sabrina Morales, a 21yearold parttime college student from Stratford.

Morales relies on her UPass to get to classes at Norwalk Community College, where she’s studying early childhood education.

The daughter of a single mom who doesn’t own a car (and also relies on the bus), Morales takes a bus, train and another bus for her 90minute oneway commute. She also uses the pass to run personal errands like doctor’s appointments, which is fine with the state Department of Transportation and transit operators who devised the UPass.

Some students use their UPass on the CT Fastrak busway system, journeying from campus to downtown to party. Better they be on a bus than on the highway if they’ve had a couple of beers, right?

Created in 2017 as a brainchild of then DOT Commissioner Jim Redeker, UPass costs every student enrolled at Connecticut colleges $20 a year, whether they use the pass or not. Most of the 26 percent of students who use the pass are firstgeneration college students coming from homes like Morales’ that rely on public transportation.

UPass sales generate $800,000 annually for the DOT and the transit operators, far less than the individual rides would cost a la carte.

“UPass is a great way of introducing public transportation to the next generation,” said the DOT’s Lisa Rivers. And the response has been phenomenal, enjoying a 47 percent increase in usage in its second year of operation.

Students just flash their

UPass and college ID, and they’re on their way. This fall, the UPass is being redesigned to show the student’s name and school, making the check of the ID even easier.

UPass is honored on the bus and the trains, including MetroNorth, but only within the state.

“If you travel beyond Greenwich to New York City, you pay the local fare,” Rivers said.

Students can also use UPass on Shore Line East from New Haven to New London and on the new CTrail Hartford Line trains from New Haven to Hartford. That’s how 20yearold Daniel Pinto, a University of Connecticut student, got to his summer job in New Haven where he was applying his civil engineering studies toward a career.

But the Hartford Line trains, jointly operated by the state DOT and Amtrak, have been having problems with UPass riders. Though both the state DOT and Amtrak tickets can be used on either Amtrak or CTRail trains, Amtrak has been refusing service to UPass holders on busy afternoon trains due to a lack of seats. In some cases, UPass holders have been kicked off the train so their seats could go to Amtrak riders with reservations.

That’s not supposed to happen and it really speaks to how little Amtrak cares about this line or the service it provides. Amtrak trains have fewer cars than the CTrail trains, the conductors aren’t properly trained and when the state DOT complains, Amtrak basically doesn’t listen.

Some have suggested the UPass program be extended to state workers, though Rivers points out that, unlike struggling college students who often choose between eating and going to school, the state employees get a paycheck — and free parking.

Erik Trautmann / Hearst Connecticut Media Students enrolled in Connecticut community colleges and state universities are automatically enrolled in UPass, which gives them unlimited access to state public transportation for $20 a year.

Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Jesse Lawrence, a former Norwalk Community College student, takes the train from Bridgeport on Oct. 7, 2016, to the South Norwalk station.