Seattle Mayor Wants to Provide Free Transit for All High School Students

Here's one way to make a kid-friendly city and introduce the joys of public transit at a young age: offer free multi-agency transit passes to high school students.

February 21, 2018, 10am PST | James Brasuell | @CasualBrasuell

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Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan is proposing a plan that would provide free transit passes to all public high school students. Daniel Beekman reports that Mayor Durkan revealed the proposal to the public in the state of the city address she delivered on Tuesday of this week.

The school district already provides free ORCA passes to about 7,000 students who live more than two miles away from their school, "and the city funds passes for an additional 2,600 high-school students from certain low-income households," reports Beekman.

"Under Durkan’s plan, all of the district’s roughly 14,000 high-school students would for the first time get unlimited, year-round passes, the mayor’s office said," adds Beekman.

The ORCA pass covers trips on Metro, Sound Transit, King County Water Taxi, Seattle Streetcar, Community Transit, Pierce Transit, Kitsap Transit, and Everett Transit.

Full Story:

All of Seattle’s public high school students to get unlimited ORCA passes under new Durkan plan

Published on Wednesday, February 21, 2018 in The Seattle Times