Tucson transit task force: Raise bus ridership, not fares

The city’s citizen-led Transit Task Force has sent a message to the City Council: Don’t raise bus fares and focus on increasing ridership.

The 11-member board voted earlier this week to oppose the various proposals to increase fares in an attempt to generate more revenue for the city-owned bus service. The City Council is expected to vote on the proposed fare hikes Tuesday.

The task force’s decision puts many on the board in direct conflict with those who appointed them, as each member of the council, the mayor and the city manager can put one person on the task force.

In June, the City Council signed off on a $1.4 billion budget for the current fiscal year that included increased revenue from Sun Tran riders.

Former City Councilwoman Margot Garcia, a member of the task force, said she wants to see the city make an investment in the service. Examples would include adding more buses to popular routes, improving predictability when buses will arrive, Wi-Fi service and discounts to encourage buying passes.

Brian Flagg, a member of the task force and one of the founders of the Tucson Bus Riders Union, said the city still has a lot of work to do regarding bringing up ridership numbers to what they were before last year’s transit strike.

The focus for more revenue should be increasing ridership, Flagg said, before asking existing riders to pay more.

Councilman Paul Cunningham, who has put forward his proposal for fare increases, is refusing to back away from a pledge to raise fares.

Every other city department has had to make painful cuts to balance the budget, he said, and it is too late to reverse course on some fare increases for bus riders.

Cunningham says the base fare should remain at $1.50 per ride because an increase could discourage “casual riders.” Instead, Cunningham wants to increase the economy fare to 75 cents over the next four years.

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Competing proposals from Mayor Jonathan Rothschild and City Manager Mike Ortega rely on other models to increase revenue from riders.

Rothschild suggests holding the economy fare to the current rate of 50 cents per ride while increasing the regular fare to $2 per ride.

Ortega’s proposal would increase the base fare to $1.75 per ride and the economy fare to 75 cents per ride.

Councilman Steve Kozachik said the bus riders deserve to see some improvement in the bus service if the council is going to increase fares.

Sun Tran is continuing to struggle to increase ridership to pre-strike numbers, and a fare increase would hinder those efforts if there are no improvements.

“We will be shooting ourselves in the foot,” he said.

Bus pullouts

The task force also signaled earlier this week that it was unhappy with the current plans to install 11 bus pullouts along East Broadway between Park Avenue and Country Club Road as part of the widening project.

The discussion focused specifically on how the pullouts would slow Sun Tran service along Broadway and would do little to improve traffic. The task force asked the city to re-evaluate the planned pull-outs.