Free public transit in Tucson is secure until 2026 but city officials are weighing options — like partnerships with higher education and K-12 schools — to keep it that way.
“We’ve had several conversations about some agreements that we could have with our educational partners,” said Samuel Credio, Tucson’s director of transportation and mobility. “Those conversations continue to evolve.”
Mayor Regina Romero said during a council study session Tuesday that collaborating with local education leaders is promising and that she has discussed the possibility of a partnership with Tucson Unified School District Superintendent Gabriel Trujillo.
“He has seen the possibility of partnering with the city of Tucson and Sun Tran for the benefit of TUSD and its families,” Romero said.
Ridership on Sun Link and Sun Express has increased dramatically, surpassing two million rides in fiscal year 2023, according to city data. More than 70% of those riders were UA students, faculty and staff, according to Credio’s presentation on March 5 when the council previously discussed funding public transit.
Romero said on Tuesday that the University of Arizona has a new president and new chancellor at Pima County Community College who may be more open than their predecessors to partnership.
“We should at least explore further the conversations that we have with our educational institutions,” she said.
Access to buses, street cars, and public transit vans have been free since March 2020, eliciting broad positive feedback from the community. COVID-19 relief funds helped pay these services for the first two years. However, in the absence of those extra dollars, the city has been struggling to find a way to continue operating for free.
Studies have shown that cities that implement fare-fee public transit boost a region’s gross domestic product, a measure that reflects the value of goods and services produced in a country or region.
A study from the Center for Economic Information at the University of Missouri Kansas City showed fare-free transit would increase regional gross domestic product between $13 million and $17.9 million.
Council members and the mayor have been talking with City Manager Tim Thomure and officials with the Transportation and Mobility Department to identify funding sources that would make free transit sustainable for the long-term.
However, Romero stressed that fare-free public transit in Tucson is secure for now.
“We do have free transit on our budget until 2026,” she said.
Council members have long argued that since local educational institutions largely benefit from free transit, they are prime potential partners to help fund the services.
“I believe that there’s a continued willingness to contribute to the system,” Ward 6 council member Karin Uhlich said at the meeting. “We just have to kind of work through some of the changes from their own perspective and how we can calculate what a reasonable contribution might mean.”
In his overview, Credio also mentioned a hotel/motel surcharge. The city currently collects a bed surtax of $4 per night for hotel guests. Credio said that “every $1.00/night collects approximately $2 million.”
Another possible funding source is a public utility tax which is currently at 6%, according to the meeting memo.
These options have been part of the ongoing discussion since the council began creating a strategic plan around public transit as a free public service similar to K-12 schools and libraries.
Previously, Credio and former City Manager, Michael Ortega, recommended the reinstatement of fares for the Sun Link streetcar and Sun Express during the March meeting. The mayor and council were not receptive.
“Last year, we voted on our intent to remain fare free and I don’t know when our intent changed for us as a council,” Santa Cruz said during the March meeting, citing the council’s unanimous vote on May 9, 2023 to “declare our intention to go fare-free transit.”
The mayor and other council members say they’re committed to making it work and Romero called back to how transportation was a key part of their Prosperity Initiative, an effort to combat poverty in the community.
Tucson is among a small and growing number of cities nationwide offering free public transit. In Arizona, Sierra Vista is piloting a fare-free program for transit services. Other U.S. cities moving to zero fares include Richmond, Virginia, Corvallis, Oregon, and Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Flagstaff, Phoenix and Tempe temporarily suspended fares for safety reasons at the start of the pandemic but soon returned to mandating money from people who use public transit for work, school or other resources. Tempe has had a free neighborhood shuttle system since 2007 and pays for it with a dedicated transit tax.
On Tuesday, Uhlich said she’s “looking forward to seeing the comprehensive analysis and operational analysis” from the transit department to further guide their future decisions.
Romero agreed and said they’re still in the research phase and will invest time in taking important actions on public transit that community members have said matter to them.
“We can’t do much decision making because there are a lot of ‘balls in the air,’ there’s a lot of movement happening,” she said.
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