Riding for Education

Each day, the light rail plays a crucial role connecting citizens to sites of education. In particular, a large and diverse group of student passengers regularly make "the college" station at Southwestern Illinois Community College (SWIC) their destination.

We've discussed the importance of the light rail for workers and fans traveling to Cardinals games, but certainly, the students making their way to SWIC along the light rail make up an integral portion of the trains' demographic. Students from various parts of the around the region, including Fairview Heights, O’Fallon, Cahokia, East St. Louis and St. Louis City, regularly ride the trains to this school.

Riders might find the ride to the SWIC college campus, in particular, to be easy and affordable. SWIC is the only school in the region that offers a free lightrail pass to any registered student, teacher, or faculty member.

With just a swipe of their college i.d. cards, college bound riders have instant access to the trains. And, they can unload from the trains and walk straight to classes. These incentives work quite well.

But, one of the biggest incentives for this demographic of students is that SWIC is the only community college in the area with direct Metro link access. The direct rail access helps make SWIC a more tangible possibility and destination for students and employees.