In a close three-way, all-day battle between Saint Louis University, University of Missouri–St. Louis and WashU, the Billikens edged out the Tritons in the end – and Saint Louis University was named the 2025 College Transit Challenge champion. In addition to securing the highly coveted bragging rights, students, faculty and staff at Saint Louis University will soon be presented with the traveling championship trophy. This is the first College Transit Challenge win for Saint Louis University, following WashU’s victories the past two years and the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ win in 2019.
The College Transit Challenge is hosted annually by Citizens for Modern Transit, in partnership with Metro Transit and the St. Clair County Transit District. The daylong challenge held on Oct. 2 encouraged students, faculty and staff at higher education institutions that offer the Metro U-Pass Program to utilize their passes to take MetroLink and/or MetroBus wherever they need to go. Trips were tracked via mobile texting and additional points were given based on the total number of challenge registrants per school, for posting to social channels, attending the Mascot Meetup Kickoff Event and more. Visit www.CollegeTransitChallenge.com for all the details.
St. Louis Community College, Saint Louis University, Southwestern Illinois College, University of Missouri–St. Louis and WashU participated in this year’s competition, which yielded 350 registrants and more than 240 tracked trips. The Mascot Meetup Kickoff event was attended by nearly 75 individuals from participating schools who gathered under the overpass of the Grand MetroLink Station and Scott Avenue Transit Plaza for formal remarks before taking the MetroLink from Grand to 8th & Pine for a breakfast celebration at Ukraft Brunch Café at Kiener Plaza. Participating students received a goodie bag, information about an array of Destination Deals available along the MetroLink alignment, bonus points for their school and other perks. All registered challenge participants also received a campaign sticker and a “Public Transit” t-shirt in a color specific to their school.
“The Metro U-Pass program makes transit super affordable as it provides unlimited rides on MetroBus and MetroLink, and participating schools pay for all or part of the pass,” stated Kimberly Cella, executive director of Citizens for Modern Transit. “This challenge is a way for individuals to learn more about the local transit system and all the places they can get to via the bus and train – ultimately increasing U-Pass utilization. This year’s challenge was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Saint Louis University and thank you to each of the participating schools for their time and commitment to public transit accessibility.”
