CCAP college partners are again partnering with Metro Transit to increase transit ridership among their students. Metro Transit has committed to an expanded partnership by offering a significant discount on College Pass to new students.
The 2017 College Pass Initiative advances the Partnership's overall goal of increasing collective transit ridership among partner institution students and employees by 5% within five years.
Significant Discounts
"This offer from Metro Transit represents real progress in our transit commitment," noted Augsburg College President Paul Pribbenow. "We can make unlimited transit use an attractive element of campus life for our incoming students."
Incoming students at CCAP partner colleges will have the option to purchase a heavily discounted College Pass, good for unlimited rides on Metro Transit trains, buses, and the North Star line.
Fall semester college passes will be available to incoming students for $90 (an $80 discount). Academic year passes will be available for $150 (a $190 discount).
"We are very interested in promoting transit as a lifestyle choice," Metro Transit General Manager Brian Lamb explained. "We are grateful that the Central Corridor Anchor Partnership shares this commitment, and pleased to see this collaboration continue."
Participating college partners will purchase a $5 Go To card to familiarize incoming students with transit options. New students can use the $5 Go-To cards to test ride transit, and colleges can offer programming specific to encouraging transit familiarity among new students.
Fall 2016 Transit Pass Promotion Results
Partnering with Metro Transit, CCAP scaled up its college transit pass pilot in fall 2016, adding three more schools—Bethel, St. Kate’s, and St. Thomas—to the pilot Go-To card for freshmen program pioneered by Augsburg in fall 2015.
Students received Go-To cards preloaded with $10, and were eligible to receive $10 bonuses if they loaded at least an additional $10 onto their cards. Program promotion included a social media contest asking students to submit a tweet about their transit usage on Twitter, with a gift card prize available weekly for the tweet with the greatest amount of social media engagement.
23% of all cards distributed in fall 2016 and spring 2017 were used at least once, and 20% of students who received Go-To Cards in fall 2016 loaded more money onto their cards.
