Student ridership soars on Duuth buses
January 10, 2012 at 6:00 pm in Duluth News Tribune
Participation in the DTA’s U-Pass program has soared beyond expectations as students take advantage of a free lift to campus.
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Student ridership soars on Duuth buses
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Not to throw water on this feel good ‘Public Transportation Is So Wonderful’ story, but it is not free. Well, at least for the taxpayers who foot the bill. Part of their tax payments goes through the Federal government, takes a left into the D.O.T. and then another left into the D.T.A. . Not to mention the portion of their State taxes paid that eases over to the left exit (sensing a pattern here?) and parks at the colleges. ’nuff said.
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I’m not sure exactly sure how it’s funded….I’d imagine some is publicly funded, and I’d think some of it is paid through student service fees (but I’m not 100% sure on that).
But it’s hard to argue that there aren’t benefits of it. It allows college students to get away from campus more, to not be so isolated from the rest of Duluth, and to spend money at restaurants, stores, and events all around Duluth.
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Correct. The U-Pass system is paid for by student fees. I remember one winter riding the 13 where they had to have two buses because by the time we got to 19th East it looked like one of those scenes out of Calcutta.
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