GW students are one step closer to riding the Metro at a reduced rate.

The leader of the District’s public transportation system expressed interest last week in giving Metro discounts to local university students. Christopher Zimmerman, chairman of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, wrote this in a letter last week to the president of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, John Childers.

In the letter, Zimmerman said that GW’s Student Association made an effective pitch for a lower rate.

“The students who have made this request . point to practices in other U.S. cities as models for what might be accomplished here under a partnership between universities and the transit agency,” he wrote. “We are willing to explore with the consortium the establishment of a similar program for our region, and to discuss how it might work.”

Zimmerman said he is willing to meet with Childers as soon as possible to discuss the reduced-fair initiative.

SA Executive Vice President-elect Kyle Boyer, who has been working on this initiative throughout the school year, said he is thrilled with the progress.

He said, “(T)he unprecedented nature of students, Metro administrators and college administrators all sitting at the same table gives me the confidence that something will happen, and perhaps sooner rather than later.”