A $10 round-trip train ticket to New York City? When Undergraduate Student Government (USG) released 187 subsidized NJ Transit tickets on Monday, students snatched them all within 60 seconds. A round-trip between Princeton and Penn Station typically costs $42.
The initiative was organized by USG’s Transit Working Group. Co-chairs Vivian Chang ’28 and Raghav Pradhan ’28 began working on the program last November and introduced the proposal at a USG meeting in May.
Notably, the tickets expire after two years, instead of the typical 30 days. The expiration extension was possible because the tickets qualify for educational institution status, Chang said in a statement. She described the longer timeframe as “a huge win for students who travel less often or are unsure of when they will need to go next.”
USG paid full price for the tickets for a total of $7,875, although USG had attempted to get a discount.
Last year, NJ Transit increased fare prices by 15 percent due to budget issues, and prices are set to rise three percent annually for an indefinite period of time. Student discounts are only available through monthly passes and are designed for students who commute to school.
Pradhan described wanting to make travel more accessible as a goal in establishing the program.
“Me and my friends, we went to New York the first week [at Princeton]. We were astounded,” he told the ‘Prince,’ referring to the train cost. “It was prohibitive for a lot of people that I knew.”
Chang and Pradhan credited Amanda Stevens, the Assistant Director for Campus Engagement for Transportation and Parking Services, with helping to facilitate the bulk purchase. They hope to use data from the successful pilot to advocate for greater transit funding support in the future.
Students were asked to fill out a survey describing their usage of NJ Transit prior to buying the tickets. The survey got over 500 responses, and a separate waitlist form for the tickets received nearly 450 responses.
“I hope to expand this program to eventually be subsidized by the University,” wrote Chang. “I believe this pilot and its survey feedback have demonstrated strong demand from the student body and made a convincing case that the current cost of transit to NYC is far too inhibitive for students.”
According to the survey respondents, recreation, cultural connection, and career development were the three most popular purposes for the tickets. Over half of the survey respondents said they were receiving full financial aid.
“There are definitely career opportunities that I can go into New York [for] more easily now,” said Nabiha Charolia ’28, who successfully got tickets. “I have something coming up, so that’s going to be important,” she added.
Some students hope to use the tickets to have some fun in New York City.
“I’ll probably use them to go to New York with friends,” said Jasmine Hao ’26.
“I’m hoping to take a trip into New York City sometime, maybe during reading [period],” said Julianna Mokaya ’28.
Other students planned to use the tickets to see family more frequently.
“I’m from overseas, so now I can finally go visit my sister who’s been in New York for a long time,” said Natasha Quay ’29.
“Some of my friends, they’re like, ‘I can’t go home because it’s going to be too costly,’” said Charolia. “If it becomes formalized, it’s going to help a lot of students reconnect with a lot of different parts of themselves.”
Chang and Pradhan said they both plan to continue working on the Transit Working Group in the future despite their changing roles within USG. Chang was recently elected as the next Social Committee chair.
“Princeton does a fantastic job at providing us a lot of things that we need to thrive on campus,” said Pradhan. “This is the next step.”
Oliver Wu is a News contributor for the ‘Prince.’ He is from Stony Brook, N.Y. and can be reached at oliver.wu@princeton.edu.
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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