To combat high cost of student transportation, government should subsidize ticket expenses
by Hannah Goldberg
Columnist
Columnists | 2/9/10
Posted online at 12:31 AM EST on 2/9/10
/ Last updated at 2:22 PM EST on 2/9/10
As I stood on the sleet-covered train platform in Wilmington, Del. three weeks ago, waiting for my train up to Boston to take me back to Brandeis at the end of winter break, I couldn't help but become a bit angry.
My anger was not due to the delay-an hour's delay to my arrival back at school after a month away was not tragic-but because I didn't know where the exorbitant amount of money I paid for my train tickets was going.
If my train tickets didn't even guarantee that my train would be on time or that I would have a warm station in which to wait in the case of a delay, then where did my $187 go?
Paying for absurdly priced travel is simply a side effect of the priceless opportunity to go to college at an institution far away from home.
If a student does not live near any university, wants to study a specific subject not offered near her, chooses to pursue an ambitious goal of applying to her "dream school" or simply wants a change of scenery, a college in a far-off land (or state) will likely provide the experience which she seeks.
However, going to college far from home also means paying to get there and back each time you decide to travel between the two.
Additionally, on my $187 train trip, more seats were empty than full. Perhaps the reason was high prices, but in the time that it takes my train to use its set amount of fuel to get me and my fellow passengers up to Boston, thousands of people are driving in their cars, burning the gas in their own tanks en route to the same destination.
If there are empty seats on the train, they may as well be set at a price reasonable enough for someone to want to actually fill them.
In Obama's State of the Union address, he emphasized that in the near future, the country that will lead the world will be not the most powerful country but the most "green."
If America is truly making an effort to "go green," it certainly is not evident upon looking at the prices of public transportation these days.
My anger was not due to the delay-an hour's delay to my arrival back at school after a month away was not tragic-but because I didn't know where the exorbitant amount of money I paid for my train tickets was going.
If my train tickets didn't even guarantee that my train would be on time or that I would have a warm station in which to wait in the case of a delay, then where did my $187 go?
Paying for absurdly priced travel is simply a side effect of the priceless opportunity to go to college at an institution far away from home.
If a student does not live near any university, wants to study a specific subject not offered near her, chooses to pursue an ambitious goal of applying to her "dream school" or simply wants a change of scenery, a college in a far-off land (or state) will likely provide the experience which she seeks.
However, going to college far from home also means paying to get there and back each time you decide to travel between the two.
Additionally, on my $187 train trip, more seats were empty than full. Perhaps the reason was high prices, but in the time that it takes my train to use its set amount of fuel to get me and my fellow passengers up to Boston, thousands of people are driving in their cars, burning the gas in their own tanks en route to the same destination.
If there are empty seats on the train, they may as well be set at a price reasonable enough for someone to want to actually fill them.
In Obama's State of the Union address, he emphasized that in the near future, the country that will lead the world will be not the most powerful country but the most "green."
If America is truly making an effort to "go green," it certainly is not evident upon looking at the prices of public transportation these days.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Barry Bloch '82
posted 2/10/10 @ 8:59 AM EST
Mr. Goldberg deserves an "F" on this assignment. Had he done his "homework," he would know that Amtrak already receives taxpayer money, and has been federally subsidized since it was founded. (Continued…)
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