That will raise regular one-way fares from $2.35 to $2.50 for bus and TRAX trips beginning April 1 and is the last of several fare-hike steps approved last year.
The activist groups are pushing in the opposite direction. They handed a joint statement to the UTA board that said buses and trains are "severely underutilized" with too many empty seats — and called for dropping fares and other steps to "double, or even triple, use of public transportation" by 2020.
"We want people to see a fare that obviously makes it cheaper to ride public transit than to hop in cars," said Laine Gardinier, vice chairwoman of the Crossroads Urban Center board. "Each fare increase creeps us a little further away from that."
Other groups joining in the call for reduced fares included the Anti-Hunger Action Committee, Breathe Utah, Coalition of Religious Communities, Disabled Rights Action League, Salt Lake Community Action Program, Utahns for Better Transportation, Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment and the Wasatch Clean Air Coalition.
UTA Board Chairman Greg Hughes invited the groups to discuss their proposals in detail in the future with a board subcommittee.
The groups also called for better education on the benefits of transit and for improved connections to make transit more attractive and shorten travel times.
Judi Short, the land-use chair of the Sugar House Community Council, complained that UTA has cut too many bus routes as it opened new TRAX and FrontRunner train lines, and that worsened commutes for many.
The budget adopted Wednesday increases spending on trains by 27 percent but keeps funding for buses essentially flat. Funding for operating trains will increase from $47.15 million to $60.15 million during the year. Buses will get a slight uptick, from $78.83 million to $79.17 million.
The budget for all operations — which also include paratransit, rideshare and other services — is $214.6 million, up from $199.1 million.
The new budget comes just after the opening this month of the extension of the FrontRunner commuter rail from Salt Lake City to Provo. Scheduled openings next year include a Green Line TRAX extension to the Salt Lake City International Airport on April 14; a Blue Line extension to Draper in August; and the new Sugar House streetcar line next winter.
The new budget projects that with all the changes, overall ridership will increase by 4 percent next year. Salt Lake Tribune
