Ian Shannon did not grow up using public transportation “I don’t think I used public transit until about a year ago, going into Center City, um, I grew up in Coatesville, so not a ton out there, and then in Westchester, we don’t really have much, the only stuff we really have are either a bus that takes 40 minutes to get somewhere, that’s a 10-minute drive, or, a train that gets us to Center City”.The freshman Actuarial Science, Risk Management & Insurance major studies at Temple University and sits on the student outreach committee of the Youth Council.

 His interest and membership of the Youth Advisory council all happened in the span of the past year “I committed to Temple, you know, I wanted to go to Temple, and plan on commuting with my one friend, his brother commuted, he’s a junior right now, but had been commuting for two years, and I found out that SEPTA was just cutting their budget, like, completely, they’re cutting five train lines, including the Paoli-Thorndale which I take to get to school” 

 From there Ian set out to get involved how he could and dove right into advocating he recounted the story saying this “we skipped school one day for a government project, and we went to SEPTA’s, meeting in Center City, they had, like, the budget hearing meetings, so my buddy and I went and talked about, like, how it’s going to affect us, and I met someone involved with Transit for Philly, through that, I got more involved… the day after graduation I went to Harrisburg, where I met Jamin and Thomas (Government Affairs Committee Member and Executive Chair) going to try to speak to representatives and all, and learned about the YAC…over the summer, got involved as much as I could, worked with Transit for Philly, um, with several volunteering events, went to some canvassing events, went to some, like, info flyer events, all that stuff, trying to just use my time properly, make sure everyone understands what’s going on with this, and how important it really is, and just grew a passion for public transit, and how necessary it really is for so many people,”

 Ians own concerns about Septa Have shifted as we have put the budgeting crisis behind us, he is now mainly concerned about Vehicle maintenance “I’d say it’s the number one, even before the stuff with the funding that’s gonna happen in the 28th annual year, the maintenance of vehicles and the funding to maintain the vehicles, like we put the heat sensors in the Silverliner 4s now for the regional rail, but the maintenance is still not up to par from what I can understand, like, there’s still things about the maintenance of vehicles we’re just ignoring, because our fleet isn’t big enough we don’t have the tools to fix it up, we don’t have the funding to properly fix the vehicles, and they’re just delaying further problems,”

 As a commuter, he often uses the Paoli line to get to and from school, but when he is not coming from home, he uses other regional rail lines. “If I’m, like, working north of my house right after school, I’ll take the Norristown line. If I’m working south of my house after school, I’ll take the Media line. If I’m just going from home, I’ll take the Paoli line, If I’m going to my dad’s work, he works in Ambler, so I’ll take the Lansdale line…I get exposed to a lot of different stops for Regional Rail, and then through Center City, I’ll just go all around, take the B, the L, taking, like, M trolleys before, just try to get around, learn more about it.” 

 This is more than just convenience to Ian; he mentions that he also uses these trips to familiarize himself with the entirety of SEPTA in the region. This care goes past just informing students; he also mentioned the chief complaints he believes students have about SEPTA are pricing and safety, saying, “I really think cost is the biggest one. “People don’t want to pay $2.90 for a trip, and they also don’t want to pay for a SEPTA pass that they’re barely going to use…  It’s definitely a stigma around certain lines. I know my girlfriend’s roommate specifically will refuse to take the B past 6 p.m., because of bad experiences. She grew up in Northeast Philadelphia, and is like “I won’t take the B past 6,” because she’s, like, 120 pounds and is like, “I don’t feel safe riding on it.””

 As a member of the student outreach committee, Ian is often a front-facing part of our organization and takes the responsibility quite seriously. He wants to be informed as much as possible to answer any questions students may have, saying, “I’m grateful to be in the position that I am; the pass that we get is nice, and I just want to be a good resource for people. I don’t like saying I don’t know, so I just want to do as much as I can, so I don’t say I don’t know to people.”

It is this care and attention to the concerns of young people using SEPTA in the Philadelphia region that makes Ian Shanon such a valuable member of YAC.