Students to vote on taking another ride with bus pass

Auraria students will vote this spring on whether to keep their semester passes for bus and Light Rail, after RTD announced an almost 30 percent jump in the price.

Scheduled for March 31 and April 1, the student referendum will decide whether the student fee for the transit pass paid each semester will increase from $39 to $61 beginning next fall, for a contract with RTD totalling more than $5 million.

The jump in price is a result of RTD raising its general fares and approximately 12 percent more Auraria riders, according to information supplied by the Student Advisory Committee to the Auraria Board. RTD representatives had not returned phone calls as of press time.

“That they raise it so much at once offends me as a conservative,” Metro student senator Kailei Higginson said. “But the value is still there…it’s still a good deal,” Higginson said.

Ted Anderson (left) and Tyler Krofft stand while Denise Lund sits and reads on a crowded southbound RTD light rail train on Monday evening. Photo by Will Morgan

And a good deal it is. An equivalent pass giving the owner unlimited Denver service would cost more than $160 per month, or more than $650 a semester. A monthly pass for only local routes is approximately $70 each month, or $280 a semester.

The reason that students get such a deal is that the cost is spread between all students whether they ride or not. RTD sets its price according to estimates of how many students actually use the pass, multiplied by the price of a cash fare. The transit company estimated Auraria students took more than 2.8 million trips in 2009 on bus and Light Rail.

SACAB, the council of student representatives elected from each institution — Metro, UCD and CCD — is in charge of conducting the RTD fee referendum, which, like all student fees according to the handbook, must be approved by students.

“I like the pass…it’s really a good deal,” Metro chemistry junior Abby Ridgeway said. Ridgeway rides the Light Rail 30 minutes from home almost every day she has classes and uses the time to do homework. Even if she lost the pass, she wouldn’t start driving, but she said she hopes the fee gets approved.

“I guess I would just suck it up and pay either way,” she said. “I don’t like driving.”

James Julian, a UCD engineering sophomore, uses the pass every day and said he will be voting to keep it. “It’s really a great pass…being able to ride anywhere on Light Rail or bus,” Julian said. “But if it got too expensive or I had to buy a monthly pass … I would probably just drive,” he said.