The U Pass is genius!

[ryanbytes]

I love the damn thing. No worries about having money on a card or cash on hand. It's a freedom like I've never experienced before. It's so great! I'd kiss whoever thought of the idea. It makes life so much simpler. One less thing for me to focus on while I'm in school.

[Busjack]

Could you confirm or deny the following: Is the U Pass a mandatory part of the student fees (and thus was designed to get some assured income to CTA)?

[trainman8119]

Could you confirm or deny the following: Is the U Pass a mandatory part of the student fees (and thus was designed to get some assured income to CTA)?

Yes it is. It was very controversial when it was instituted. I can't remember how the CTA got it to be forced onto students, but it is a mandatory fee, whether students want it or not, whether the need exists or not.

[rmadisonwi]

Yes it is. It was very controversial when it was instituted. I can't remember how the CTA got it to be forced onto students, but it is a mandatory fee, whether students want it or not, whether the need exists or not.

I don't know about the specifics of CTA, but in general, it's not the transit system that gets a U-PASS "forced onto the students." In many cases, the student government works to get an agreement with the transit system. The transit system offers a large discount as long as there is a guaranteed number of passes sold. To the university, this means "forcing" the students to pay for it whether they want to use it or not. If they had the ability to opt out, then the rest of the students would have to pay more.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter to the CTA, or any other transit system, whether a university has a U-Pass or not. The theory behind the U-Pass (and the discounted purchase price) is that it is, at worst, revenue-neutral to the system (whether they have a few people paying a higher price, or a bunch of people paying a lower fare).