Wednesday, April 13, 2011

DCTA University Pass Program

Today I went to a DCTA Public Meeting. This informational meeting in particular was about the upcoming A-train service that is opening in June, and how students can take advantage of it. The rail will connect to DART's GREEN Line, and will connect Denton to the ongoing web of rail networks throughout North Texas. This PDF contains the proposed fare structure and their reasoning behind it.This is the brochure they handed out.

A lot of conversations were brought up during the informational meeting. Part of what was brought up was the possibility, in the future, of using student ID cards as a sort of pass card to ride DCTA rails. The issue, however, was the costs associated with implementing that sort of system and the funding is simply not there at this time. The outlook is somewhere in the 5-8 year range, and even that's a maybe. With no subsidies provided by UNT/TWU, it makes it harder. Subsidies are a cost that would fall on us as the students, which would ultimately just increase our tuition rates I'd imagine.

Something else that was brought up was the fact that Commuter Express, will be phasing out. It is in essence being replaced by the railway.

Other random things: The rail will not operate on Sundays
The Downtown Denton station will be located at Hickory St. and Bell Ave.

Some other interests that were expressed by attendees included letting UNT students pay "discount" rates, providing faculty/staff the option of a salary deduction to pay for the fares, offering per-semester fares, setting up a bulk package to UNT for a discounted price to provide to students at UNT to pay for, and much more.

I found out about the meeting through UNT's eaglemail. If you are a UNT student, don't neglect checking that email!