Another college joins SEPTA’s UPass program in which students ride for free

Students at Bryn Mawr College will be able to ride SEPTA for free this fall.

The college is the latest school to join SEPTA’s Key Advantage UPass program, which was launched last year and offers steep discounts to institutions that purchase the program for its students.

“As our college believes in access and equity, we are thrilled to partner with SEPTA to provide equal opportunity for our students to connect with the city, learn, grow, and enhance their academic and co-curricular pursuits,” Karlene Burrell-McRae, the dean of the undergraduate college at Bryn Mawr College, said in a statement.

More than 1,500 full-time students at the college will be able to use the program during their academic year, from September through December, and then from February through May. They will have a limit of 240 rides in a month.

A monthly all-access SEPTA Key card typically costs $204, and the UPass passes are offered to partners at a discount of more than 80%, according to the transit agency.

UPass was launched last year with Swarthmore College and is available to area colleges and universities.

In an interview with The Inquirer last year, SEPTA’s manager of business development in the financial operations department, Jennifer Scimone, said she hoped the UPass program would have 15 colleges and universities join in the first year. To date, Bryn Mawr College is the second higher-education institution to sign up for the program. Since partnering with Swarthmore last year, the agency says, students typically use the pass on the weekends, and about 89% of students have used it at least once.

“This program has made it easier and less expensive for students to travel to destinations across the region,” Leslie Richards, SEPTA’s CEO and general manager, said in a statement Tuesday.

UPass is an extension of SEPTA’s original Key Advantage program, which got its start in 2022 offering businesses the opportunity to purchase discounted passes for their employees who could then use them for free. The city of Philadelphia is one of the largest partners in the program, which has 55 partners and 95,000 participants in total, according to the transit agency.

The program was seen as a way to help the agency rebuild ridership, which took a hit during the pandemic. SEPTA depends on the fares that riders pay to keep the transit system running and estimates that it is facing a $240 million operating deficit this fiscal year, which began on July 1. That month, SEPTA’s systemwide ridership was 73% of pre-pandemic levels, compared with the same month in 2019.