TAMPA, Fla. — Riders of the HART bus between downtown Tampa and the University of South Florida will start paying for that trip starting Monday.
While the Tampa City Council did not approve extending the fare-free system permanently, community organizers say the push wasn’t wasted — because it helped secure new funding to make the system faster and more reliable.
During the most recent budget cycle, the Tampa City Council approved about $1.3 million to improve Route 1 service, including plans for 15-minute frequency from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekdays and 20-minute service in the evenings and on weekends.
Transit advocates say that investment comes directly from lessons learned during the pilot — which showed just how many people rely on Route 1 daily.
“Ridership did increase by over 50% and the on-time performance increased month after month,” said Dayna Lazarus with Transit Now Tampa Bay. “One of our bigger goals was to get people on the bus and just show that there is a demand. If you take away some of the barriers for people who haven’t ridden before, they can give it a try — and that obviously worked out very well.”
Advocates say that while fare-free service may be gone for now, the investment in reliability is a major win for one of Tampa’s busiest routes.
Spectrum News Staff
Source link