Park-and-Ride Closure Spells End of Free Rides for Rochester College Students

Rochester, MN (KROC-AM News)- The closure of a transit park-and-ride lot has spelled the end of fare-free bus trips for most Rochester college students. 

See Also: Olmsted County Approves $39 Million Fairgrounds Project 

On Thursday, the City of Rochester announced the closure of its park-and-ride lot on the Rochester Community and Technical College campus. 

Rochester Public Transit (RPT) uses the west lot at RCTC as a park-and-ride and in exchange, RCTC students were given fare-free rides on RPT buses, according to RCTC spokesperson Nate Stoltman. 

Get our free mobile app

Closure of RCTC Park-And-Ride Means End of Fare-Free Rides for Most Students

A news release issued by the City of Rochester says the park-and-ride lot will no longer be used due to low utilization. 

Officials described the decision to terminate RPT’s use of the lot as “part of RPT’s ongoing commitment to the responsible allocation of resources and the enhancement of service across the broader transit system.” The agreement is scheduled to end on July 1, the news release says. 

A communication sent to RCTC students by school officials on Wednesday said free rides on RPT will no longer be available to students beginning August 1. 

“The timing of this is far from ideal as it does not give our students much time to arrange other means of getting to campus.  While we won’t know how many students this decision will directly impact, we know that there have been thousands of rides on RPT buses by students,” Stoltman said

RCTC is planning to buy a limited number of RPT passes to give to students who are in emergent need of transportation. Stoltman says the passes will be available through RCTC’s campus resource office. 

RPT does offer discounted passes to students, however Stoltman said the price can still be a barrier for students who do not have extra income for transportation. 

RPT will continue service to the RCTC campus with two routes. The buses make stops every 20 minutes outside of the main building during peak times and every 30 minutes during off-peak times, the city says.