UTAH COUNTY – A multi-million dollar deal has been reached between the Utah Transit Authority, Brigham Young University, and Utah Valley University. It ensures students at those schools, along with faculty and their families, will have access to free public transit for the next ten years. This won’t come cheap to either school. “What they’re willing to do is commit about a million dollars a year for ten years to provide no-cost transit passes to their students, faculty, staff, and families,” according to UTA CEO Jerry Benson.
The free transit will go into effect in August of 2018. So, why are school officials announcing this now? Benson says, “The reason they wanted to announce it now is that they want to get the word out quickly to incoming students not to bring their car and to let them know they’re going to have free access to the whole transit network.”
Officials estimate 100 thousand people may be able to take advantage of this deal over the next ten years. Utah Valley University President Matthew Holland says, “We know that four thousand of our students live within a half mile of bus rapid transit stops. We know that thousands of our students every day are riding Frontrunner down to campus from points north and south.”
