SunTran bus at Ronstadt Transit Center, December 2021.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Tucson responded by making public transit services free of charge. This summer, city leaders are wrestling again with the impact of bringing fares back.
Tim Domer is among the riders awaiting a decision that other cities across the country have already faced: restore the bus fares to generate revenue and allow quality service to continue.
"I'd hate to see the free bus go," said Domer. "But if the alternative is poorer bus service? Well, we have to pay for pretty much everything."
SunTran public transit general manager Mikel Ogelsby recalls "an unsettled time" when COVID-19 burst on the scene in March 2020. He said the company took immediate steps to protect the health of drivers and riders alike.
"Public spacing, because at the time you could only have 15 people on a bus," Ogelsby explained. "We added sneeze guards on buses that didn't have protective guards, and unfortunately assaults increased a bit during that period of time."
SunTran's ridership decreased early, but rebounded when fares were eliminated on the buses and the SunLink streetcar system.
"A majority, if not all transportation systems went free-fare during COVID simply because of the limited service that was being provided," said Ogelsby. "What's different in Tucson is that it continued."
The number of riders grew over the years to eventually surpass pre-COVID marks. SunTran managers found people weren't going to give up their bus riding routines even when working from home: they still traveled to the supermarkets to purchase food, went to drugstores to pick up medical prescriptions, and took the bus downtown to conduct business in-person there.
Before the pandemic, says Ogelsby, SunTran recorded peak versus non-peak ridership. "In the morning, you had to get to work, and going home after 5, you had to leave," he said. "People began working from home, but we still had the same ridership numbers. So, the majority of the ridership was now happening after work. We started picking up different types of riders who needed to get to where they needed to go."
According to the Tucson Sentinel, the city spent $60 million dollars from its general fund on transit in 2023. Surveys found that larger cities with bigger budgets could not stick with a free-fare public transit system when COVID concerns decreased. Fares to ride buses and light rail were reinstated for places including Seattle two years ago. but smaller cities like Tucson were able to resist the move.
Stateline, a journal that reports on public policy, found that Tucson; Albany, New York; and Birmingham, Alabama fully recovered their ridership numbers post-COVID. They all were able to do it, in-part, because of free rides and flexibility in city budgeting.
Public pressure made a difference, too. Officials stuck with the free ride policy after realizing how much it was helping lower-paid workers and the employers who depend on them. In Tucson, SunTran improved its service, bringing on more electric powered vehicles and providing better protection for bus drivers.
Transit for All, a coalition pushing to keep public transit free in Tucson, believes charging bus fares limits employment opportunities for adults, and afterschool activities for kids. The decision lies with members of the Tucson City Council, which has put the delicate issue on the back burner for months.
In April, Tucson voters rejected Proposition 414, a bid to boost city revenue by increasing the sales tax. That result meant the Council may not be able to put off reinstating public transit fares much longer.
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