Laura Glesby photo
Wanda Perez: Buses are a lifeline to doctors, food pantries, family.
Thomas Breen file photo
Fares, be gone!
As she juggles the cost of everything from utilities to laundry, the past seven months of fare-free buses have given Wanda Perez one less expense to worry about.
“That helps me go to my doctors’ appointments, to see my loved ones,” Perez told a room full of bus riders, transit advocates, and alders — as they collectively pushed for making the state’s temporary bus fare holiday permanent.
Perez was one of about 20 New Haveners who testified before the Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy Committee on Thursday in support of a resolution calling on the state to continue waiving the $1.75 public bus fare beyond Dec. 1 — a resolution the committee unanimously voted to support. The meeting took place in the Aldermanic Chamber on the second floor of City Hall.
Perez was also one of a dozen advocates at Thursday’s meeting from Witnesses to Hunger, a policy advocacy group comprised of people experiencing food insecurity, who filled multiple pews of the Board of Alders’ chamber in support of the measure. She noted that fare-free buses have expanded access to food pantries for people struggling to afford their basic needs.
Laura Glesby photos
Thursday’s 20 testifiers included regular bus riders like William Long (center) and Kat Morris (bottom right), homelessness advocates like Steve Werlin (bottom middle), and community organizers like Alberta Witherspoon (middle left).
The state waived bus fares for all CT Transit riders starting on April 1 of this year, as part of a broader relief package responding to heightened gas costs. That legislation was initially slated to expire at the end of June, but in May, the governor and state legislators extended the free fares until Dec. 1.
Even if the full Board of Alders adopts the resolution that was endorsed by the CSEP committee Thursday night, however, that would not mean that riding the bus would remain free in New Haven or across the state after Dec. 1. That decision rests with the governor and the state legislature. If the local resolution passes, it would instead represent New Haven city government expressing its official support for the bus fare holiday to continue.
The eliminated fares have led to a visible growth in bus usage across the city. Downtown/East Rock Alder Eli Sabin, who introduced the aldermanic resolution, noted in a presentation to his local legislative colleagues that by August, bus ridership reached 12 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels. (According to the state Department of Transportation, September’s ridership was 21 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels, while October’s was seven percent higher.) At the same time, other forms of public transit like Metro North’s commuter trains have continued to see lower ridership compared to before the Covid-19 pandemic.
In a statement sent to the Independent for this article, state Department of Transportation spokesperson Josh Morgan wrote that this increase in CTtransit ridership could have multiple factors: “Ridership has increased and now slightly exceeds pre-pandemic levels in October 2022 compared to October 2019. However, the ridership increase has multiple contributors, including but not limited to the suspension in fares, return to office buildings, and resumption of in-person activities. Research is planned following the fare-free period to compare bus ridership with any increases or decreases in single occupant vehicle trips that may have also occurred in the service territory. We look forward to the results of this additional data point.”
In his Thursday presentation, Sabin calculated that when the standard $1.75 fare was in place, bus passengers who commute to and from work five days a week spent $1,000 a year on fares (or about $750 a year if they could afford the upfront costs of a monthly bus pass.) That’s not counting grocery runs, childcare pickups, and other reasons one might need to travel across town.
Meanwhile, Sabin said, it would cost the state $40 million annually to keep buses free to the public. He contrasted that figure with the state’s recent $12.7 billion plan to bolster commuter rail service over the next five years.
Eli Sabin: $1.75 per ride adds up.
The goal of the resolution, Sabin said, is “for us as a city to speak up with one voice.” He added that even for people who don’t ride the bus, expanding transit access “means less traffic, more parking on the street, less pollution. We’re all benefiting from people who ride the bus.”
He added, “It’s difficult for folks who ride the bus to make it out to public hearings like this,” especially if they have work and family obligations to balance against the logistics of getting from place to place on the bus system.
That comment received a chorus of snaps from bus riders waiting to give public comments.
"Already-Loaded Plates"
A contingent of Witnesses to Hunger activists helped fill the Board of Alders chamber.
One theme that echoed throughout public testimony on Thursday was the weighty toll of bus expenses on New Haveners living in poverty.
“It’s a very difficult thing to understand when you have money what it means to come up with $2.50,” said William Long, who said his regular bus route stops at multiple methadone clinics where passengers seek substance use disorder treatment.
Steve Werlin, the executive director of the Downtown Evening Soup Kitchen, spoke to a profound importance of free buses for unhoused New Haveners, who have been using the buses to fulfill basic needs at organizations spread throughout the city.
“Our clients are taking the bus” to DESK’s soup kitchen, drop-in center, and food pantry, Werlin said. “Then take the bus to Columbus House. Then take the bus up Dixwell to Cornell Scott Hill Health Center. Then take the bus to get to the DMV to get IDs, without which they can’t get housing.”
Lorena Mitchell, the city’s new coordinator for community mental health initiatives, told alders that “almost half of those who are transportation insecure report missing a medical appointment because of transportation.”
“This is a reprieve from already-loaded plates,” Kim Hart, the co-founder of New Haven’s Witnesses to Hunger chapter, said to fellow advocates about the fare elimination prior to the hearing. “Our plates are so full.”
Feeding Economy, Community
Committee alders enthusiastically supported the resolution.
In addition to benefiting riders for whom bus fares were a prohibitive cost and encouraging local residents to curb pollution and carbon emissions, Thursday’s attendees argued that the free bus fares have helped New Haveners connect with and support the city on a deeper level.
Anstress Farwell said she’s noticed that buses are significantly faster now that long lines of riders no longer need to rummage for bus passes in order to board. The lack of a fare creates a sense that the whole city is accessible to anyone, Farwell said. “You feel a possession of the city in a different way.” For people who can’t drive or bike, the free buses enable them to “not feel like the whole city isn’t theirs.”
Recent Yale graduate Kahlil Greene said that the bus system has helped him grow a stronger connection to the city and discover “how to be a better community member.” He said he takes the bus to support local businesses beyond the scope of Downtown: to get groceries at the Meat King in Mill River, to get his hair cut at “the best barber in New Haven” on Dixwell Avenue.
Kat Morris said she loves chatting with bus passengers and especially bus drivers as she rides around town. “My parents are Jamaican immigrants. A lot of bus drivers are Jamaican immigrants,” she said. She asked lawmakers to consider more ways to support bus drivers as they deal with belligerent or unwell passengers.
This point resonated with East Rock Alder Anna Festa, who chairs the committee, as alders deliberated later on in the meeting. The bus system “even builds community,” Festa marveled.
She added that she wanted to “get the financials on this item,” particularly because “there’s unions involved.”
Hill Alder Kampton Singh declared free buses a “win-win situation” for residents and for the environment.
And Prospect Hill/Newhallville Alder Steve Winter alluded to the state’s latest budget surplus of over $4 billion. He argued that a $40 million added cost to make CT Transit buses free is “such a steal!”
The committee alders unanimously voted to approve the resolution. It will next go before the full Board of Alders for review.
Most of the legislators I knew (who made the funding decisions) were decent people. I assume this is true today. Same thing for the ConnDOT officials who run the bus system. But very few of them ride buses. Generally speaking, few middle-income or well-off people (i.e., the majority of voters) do. While there are solid economic reasons for extending the fare-free program, the political argument is decidedly weaker. Nonetheless, it is still the right thing to do.