Last December 30, I took a late-night Caltrain home from Stanford as usual. As the conductor made her way down the aisle she glanced at my Go Pass and remarked that I would have to get a new pass for the New Year. Sadly, I informed her that Stanford had once again declined to fund the Go Pass program for graduate students. She rolled her eyes and exclaimed, “They’re taking it away from you again?!” Her reaction summed up my feelings at being forced to commute by either car or bus for the second time in two and a half years as a Ph.D. student at Stanford.

When I began looking for housing on the peninsula in 2005 the Go Pass made Caltrain seem like the perfect way to commute, so I was delighted to find an apartment in San Mateo that offered significantly better value than anything I saw in Palo Alto. One of its main attractions was its location approximately 100 feet from the Caltrain tracks. Due to the proximity to the Hayward Park Caltrain station, my commute averaged 45 minutes. I could read and work during the commute and also limit my carbon footprint. As I study the adverse effects of climate change on butterfly populations, it is important to me that I not contribute to the problem I study by driving to work every day!

As the Baby Bullet trains rumble by my apartment every morning, what once was a point of pride and a quirky, reassuring feature of my home has become an irritating daily reminder of Stanford’s failure to offer an essential service. When the Go Pass was suspended two years ago, I was forced to take the bus — I had no car and paying for Caltrain was simply too cost prohibitive. My commute time more than doubled to an hour and 40 minutes. Spending more than three hours a day commuting really cut down on my extracurricular activities, like sleep.

I now have a car — a hand-me-down 1995 Honda Passport that gets 20 miles to the gallon on a good day. Of course, my ailing car needs a smog check right now (among other things), so I’m currently enjoying the “leisurely” bus ride up and down El Camino on the 390 and missing the days of zipping by my apartment on the train and congratulating myself on such a great location.

I understand that financial constraints make funding the Go Pass program difficult, but it is the single most important service Stanford offers to me and many other graduate students. Given its importance to graduate students, many of whom live as far afield as San Francisco, I am surprised that the Go Pass continues to be neglected. Before 2008, I often sang Stanford’s praises for giving me the flexibility to live farther from campus and its commitment to subsidizing greener transportation options. It’s depressing to ring in the New Year with so much frustration and disappointment toward the University.

Timothy Bonebrake is a third-year doctoral candidate in biological sciences.