The TransPass Chronicles

We’ve all been there. You fumble around your pockets, your jacket, your bag. Your hands get more frantic as they turn up empty, pocket after pocket. You don’t have your TransPass. Maybe you dug around and coughed up the $2.50. Maybe you just skipped the bus or the train altogether. Or, maybe, you went behind a friend through the turnstile or slipped onto the bus through the backdoor. Well, a couple weeks ago, a junior at Masterman did just that. Except, this time, they were spotted by two transit police officers around the corner who handed them a $25 ticket.

Yes, you read that right. A SEPTA ticket, practically an urban legend for Philadelphia’s high school students, who are used to enjoying a certain impunity as they duck past SEPTA employees with turned backs and are waved past graciously by others.

Maybe you’re thinking, what’s the big deal? It was just $25. Sure, by Masterman math, that’s a few halals and a drink, not an unwieldy amount for the average Masterman pocket. The fine was paid and that was the end of it. But this story has inspired a larger conversation about how Philly’s students travel as a whole.

Students in the Philadelphia School District are eligible for district-issued SEPTA TransPasses if they live 1.5 miles or farther from school, guaranteeing free public transportation during the school week between 5:30 AM and 7:00 PM. But what about the students that don’t meet that requirement? According to Maureen Edozie, the school district’s Finance Director of Transportation, roughly 135,000 students in Philadelphia do not qualify for district-issued TransPasses. Yet, this number goes beyond Masterman and public schools like it. The district is also responsible for providing transportation to students who attend charter and non-public schools, expanding the number of students under its authority to over 200,000. Philadelphia has succeeded in gaining an exception to the regulations set by Pennyslvannia’s Public School Code, lowering the original qualification of 2 miles, by virtue of the nature of Philly’s city environment. However, that same city environment has made transportation challenging for many of the district’s non-eligible students.

For some students, not getting a TransPass means a walk of just a couple blocks, but others are faced with a longer trek, made especially difficult on days when it’s cold or raining or snowing. Even on sunny days, the routes these students are taking to school on a daily basis can lead them into unsafe or unfamiliar neighborhoods. Beyond the commute to school, as many Masterman students know, students who are not issued TransPasses often bear the cost of fare themselves when using public transportation for extracurricular activities, sports, and school trips. A single season can drain hundreds of dollars from the pockets of students and families when the expense of transit to and from practice at a field, pool, or other facility costs five dollars per day and quickly mounts to $25/week. In Philly, under this system, students that live a block away from each other are faced with a different set of challenges and financial burdens. And for many of Philly’s families, paying daily fare themselves for public transportation is not an option.

But, the Philadelphia School District is not looking to budge anytime soon. As the school district’s Interim Chief of General Operations, Danielle Floyd, noted, the district is solely responsible for supporting the education of its students. Although students are permitted to use district-issued TransPasses for extracurricular activities, the district will not be changing eligibility requirements on that basis. Even if the district wanted to, this matter is frankly out of its hands. Unsurprisingly, it has a lot to do with money. The state of Pennsylvania only reimburses transportation costs concerning students that are eligible under its statute. If the Philadelphia School District did start to issue more TransPasses, it would have to fully absorb the cost for every student that lives within the 1.5 mile radius of their school. This poses a nearly impossible feat for a district already suffering from a decade of budget cuts and whose teachers still lack resources and whose schools close under unsafe conditions.

At Masterman, though, students still call for unconditional free transportation. Word of that student’s $25 fine has been met with disbelief and scorn. However, that Masterman student actually got lucky. This time last year, they would have been facing a fine of $300 and a court hearing. Fortunately for Philadelphians like them, in April of 2019, SEPTA announced its new plan for enforcement of fare evasion, detailing how they hope this new policy will “discourage incidents and focus on repeat offenders.” Philadelphia was not alone in this quandary. Many cities across America continue to impose exorbitant fines and charges for transit violations. Even more, in many of these public transportation systems, the people receiving these three-figure fines for skipping out on $2 or $3 fares have been disproportionately people of color and have faced unnecessarily violent arrests and stops by transit police. Other cities, like New York City, have seen public dissent of transit enforcement escalate into mass protests. SEPTA, on the other hand, seems to have taken the first step in the right direction. Advocates of decriminalizing fare evasion in Philadelphia believe it anticipates a future with equitable public transportation for all. Perhaps the next step will be establishing free transportation for all of Philadelphia’s students, regardless of where they live and whether or not they hold a plastic card in their hand.

For now, hold onto your TransPasses and don’t hop the turnstiles… unless the coast is clear.