The TCU Senate's proposal to create a shuttle bus to downtown Boston is a shortsighted answer to a long-term problem. Yes, students are currently constrained by the fact that the MBTA shuts down at 12:30 a.m. Yes, a shuttle would provide a "reliable and safe mode of transportation" to campus. But the proposal of a private shuttle provides limited overall accessibility and mobility to Tufts students in response to what is a structural problem with mass transit in the Boston area.
The MBTA is constantly burdened by debt. The continued costs of Big Dig-related debt service amounts to nearly one-third of the MBTA's budget every year. The MBTA also does not have sufficient guaranteed income because sales tax revenues - the main source of funding for the T - fluctuate on a year-to-year basis. This financial double-blow is what largely prevents the T from expanding service, which affects everyone who lives in Boston. And yet the lack of expanded service is what brings about the discussion of a private shuttle run by Tufts. Rather than saddle the university with the responsibility to shuttle Tufts students around the Greater Boston area, there is a way to address the wishes of the student body while also helping the surrounding community. Instead of devising a temporary solution that only benefits Tufts, there is a better way forward.
Tufts has the chance to be a leader in the Boston area by creating a public-private partnership with the MBTA to form a University Pass program. Such a program would "provide unlimited rides for no less than 100 percent of [Tufts'] full-time student population." Essentially, every student at Tufts would receive a monthly pass for unlimited rides on the T paid for by the university. In return for this guaranteed enrollment, the MBTA would provide these annual passes at a 50 percent discount to Tufts. This discount would reduce the cost of a semester long-pass from $280 to $140 per student. The university could partially recoup this money through a student services fee, or simply pay it because based on the current annual tuition - $58,780 - this discounted pass would amount to only 0.48 percent of the income each student generates at Tufts per semester.
The revenue from this U-Pass system would be explicitly dedicated toward the creation of late-night MBTA service. From 2002 to 2004, the MBTA ran "night owl" bus service where buses replicated the routes of the subway from 12 a.m. to 2 a.m., which cost the T nearly $2 million per year. However, if just half of college students in the metro-Boston area participated in the U-Pass program, the MBTA would gain about $40 million in new annual revenue. Even if the T extended service to 24-hours a day, which it should, it would cost around $10 million per year. So not only would a U-Pass program extend MBTA service to 24-hours a day, but it would leave roughly $30 million in annual revenue for the T to use to improve service along the Green and Red lines - the primary subways college students use.
There are examples of U-Pass programs around the country and even within Massachusetts. Chicago, San Francisco and Milwaukee all have U-Pass programs with slight variations to adapt them to the contours of their respective transit systems and they have all proved successful. Milwaukee saw a 10 percent increase in transit ridership the first year it implemented the program; San Francisco was able to extend this benefit to graduate students; Chicago netted $25 million in profit in 2012. The U-Pass system in western Massachusetts - which includes Amherst, Hampshire, Smith, Mt. Holyoke and UMass Amherst - allows students and employees to ride for free and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority has even added extra service to specifically serve these colleges.
The reason the U-Pass program does not already exist in Boston is largely because no one institution has been willing to take the plunge on its own. There are valid reasons for this, primary among them the fact that the MBTA cannot extend overnight service throughout the system based on the revenue of a single university. Tufts students, however, do not just benefit from the extended hours the U-Pass program would provide. If every student has unlimited access to the MBTA, what that really means is that every student now has unlimited access to Boston. The MBTA links students to jobs, recreation and endless community activities, and the university could provide this access at a relatively miniscule cost.
Even with the numerous benefits, the administration at Tufts is not likely to act on this proposal for a U-Pass system without sustained student demand for it. Every student on campus would benefit from this program. In that spirit, the TCU Senate should pass a resolution calling for the creation of a U-Pass system. There is also a student movement at Harvard - Students for a Just and Stable Future - pushing for a U-Pass program there. It seems that a coalition of student groups here at Tufts could fight the same fight and collaborate between campuses. If both Tufts and Harvard instituted pilot programs at the same time, then the pressure on one university to be the first would be drastically reduced. These are not all the answers, but they provide the beginning of what could fundamentally transform mass transit in Boston.
The U-Pass program would be of immeasurable benefit to the Tufts student body; at little individual cost, each student would have unlimited MBTA access, not just for late-night service, but every hour of every day that the MBTA operates once the full U-Pass program is realized. The administration can avoid the cost and administrative burden of running a private shuttle, promote student use of the T and send the right message to the Tufts community as well as the broader community about Tufts' engagement with city-wide issues. In return for these benefits, Tufts would spend very little and also help the surrounding community by extending service hours for everyone.
Taking this bold first step would also reaffirm the pledge Tufts makes in the new strategic plan to creating a university where "creative scholars generate bold ideas, innovate in the face of complex challenges and distinguish themselves as active citizens of the world." There is no better way to illustrate the commitment to these goals than for Tufts to create a year-long pilot program for a U-Pass system.
