Washington authorities move to make city bus services free of charge

In the land of the free, most things come with a price tag.

Apart from commercial rewards or loyalty programmes offered by some companies, which can be generous, in the United States (US) few goods or services are provided for nothing.

However, there seems to be a small but growing trend towards public transport being provided without cost in some cases.

From next summer it is proposed that bus services in the Washington DC area will be free of charge. Last month the DC council voted to waive fares for bus journeys in the city from July. Currently, most bus journeys cost $2 (€1.90) with a $4.25 charge on express routes.

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The local authority in Washington would, under the plan, subsidise bus journeys within the city limit.

The council also announced plans to expand bus services to run round-the-clock on several busy routes to help late-night workers who often have to rely on taxis or Uber in the early hours after public transport shuts down.

Overall the new initiative will cost an estimated $42 million per year.

The move has been backed strongly by some local politicians such as council member Charles Allen who said it would prove to be transformational for the city. The chair of the council, Phil Mendelson, said the initiative could help persuade more people to take public transport following a decline in numbers taking the bus in recent years.

Travel by bus in Washington DC is rebounding after the impact of the pandemic. However, the estimated 180,000 daily journeys last year is still considerably down on the more than 350,000 who boarded buses each day in the years before Covid-19.

Some politicians in the city are strongly supportive of the free bus plan but Washington mayor Muriel Bowser, while agreeing with the principle, has expressed concerns about the costs.

The free bus service would not be extended to the metro rail system, which operates in the US capital and parts of the adjoining states of Virginia and Maryland. There are other proposals for the provision of a $100 monthly subsidy for Washington DC residents to use the train services which would come into operation in late 2024.

Supporters argue that subsidising public transport would be of huge benefit to low-income families and individuals living in the area who spend a significant proportion of their earnings on getting to and from work.

The proposed free bus service would come into effect as soon as July 2023 if the mayor either signs the new bill or leaves it unsigned for 30 days. The measure would also be subject to a 30-day congressional review.

The free bus service initiative comes at a time in Washington when its metro rail system faces potential serious financial problems from later this year. The $2.4 billion in aid provided by the federal government to cushion the loss of fare revenue caused by the pandemic is beginning to run out. This could leave the service with a projected $150 million funding gap that could grow to an estimated $500 million in 2024 in the absence of a significant rise in passenger numbers or the introduction of cutbacks.

If the bus initiative goes ahead next summer, Washington DC would join a number of other cities, internationally as well as in the US, where efforts are under way to encourage people to use public transport through free or reduced-fare schemes, with the aims of discouraging private motoring, reducing emissions and luring workers back to the office.

A number of US cities reduced bus fares in the early months of the pandemic. In some cases normal fares have been restored while some initiatives are continuing.

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In Boston there is a pilot programme to make free of charge three bus routes that are heavily used by lower-income passengers.

At the end of November transport authorities in Connecticut introduced a free public transit bus service across the state that is scheduled to continue until March 31st.

Last summer Tucson, in Arizona, voted to make its public transport free for passengers for the year while Kansas City, in Missouri, has offered no-cost public transit service since 2019.

While public transport fares in Ireland were reduced by an average of 20 per cent earlier this year as part of measures to tackle the cost of living crisis, there have also been calls for a free service to be put in place on a pilot basis.

If such initiatives take off in the US it may boost calls for similar measures in Ireland.