Metra College Student Discount Initiative

Extending Metra's Student Discount to College Students

Support Illinois State House Bill 2144

• For years, the state of Illinois provided funding so that students could receive a reduced fare (50%) on Metra, the commuter rail service in NE Illinois.
• The problem is, Metra does not include all students in its definition. Only elementary and high school students are eligible for the discount.
• Given that college students pay more taxes than younger students, especially sales taxes that help fund regional mass transit, and face enormous financial hurdles to attend college, extending the student discount to college students makes sense.
• Students at several colleges and universities in the Chicago area have united to lobby Metra and the Illinois General Assembly. We are asking that Metra simply include all students in its definition of students.
• This does not create a new class of discounted fare. It simply treats college students the same as grade school and high school students.

Economic Benefits

• College students contribute to the state's economy in countless ways, by filling critical jobs, paying income and sales taxes and patronizing local businesses.
• The cost of tuition keeps rising with no end in sight. Fees and textbook costs continue to drive up the cost of attending college. For those students who live at home in the suburbs, but attend a college in the city, providing the student discount is an easy way to lessen the burden on students.
• By giving college students an incentive to take mass transit, the state and RTA can encourage lifetime ridership, creating an entire generation of new customers.

Environmental Benefits

• Every student on a Metra train is one fewer car on the roads and highways.
• Each train trip resluts in additional available street parking spaces for residents of  neighborhoods such as Hyde Park, Taylor Street and Lincoln Park, etc.
• Fewer cars equals reduced emissions in the Chicago metropolitan area.
• Encouraging and incentivising mass transit use for students fosters sustainable behavior by a growing group in society, which perpetuates the economic and environmental benefits of mass transit use.

Cost to Tax Payers

• The Metra Student discount is state-funded, and is in addition to the recent increase in sales taxes passed to increased funding for mass transit in Illinois.
• The same state-funded discount also provided for reduced fares for senior citizens.
• Governor Blagojevich amended the RTA sales tax increase to provide free rides for seniors to be funded by the increased sales taxes.
• The state funded discount is now for students only, and adding college students will not exhaust the state funds currently provided to Metra for student discounts.