Fare or no fare: CVTD considers charging bus riders

For the past 20 years the Cache Valley Transit District has provided a bus system free of charge to the community. However, that may change as the CVTD Board of Trustees consider changing the zero-fare policy and start charging Cache Valley citizens to ride the bus.

Currently no fare is charged so as to provide a service to the community.

“The reason why we started this system was to create greater mobility and to help students, the poor, the disabled and the elderly so they could get around the community and also to reduce the congestion on the road and reduce air pollution,” said Doug Thompson, a member of the CVTD Board of Trustees.

Despite this the CVTD is considering changing their zero-fare policy.

“There has been a gradual change in attitude regarding the poor, and it seems to be that people don’t like anyone not paying their own way,” Thompson said.

If the policy is changed, the effects will hinder more than the lower class of Cache County.

In a 2012 Fare Analysis done by Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates Inc., it was estimated that if the CVTD did start charging a fare between $0.50- $1.50, they would lose between $25,942 and $246,542. This was even with the 0.3 percent of local option sales tax, which the CVTD is currently using to operate and planning to continue using whether or not they start charging fare.

The loss of support from granting agencies will affect funds, with so much currently coming from them to support the service.

“The granting agencies prefer a no-fare systems, and so they may be less likely to provide grants for us,” Thompson said.

Yet despite all these factors supporting the zero-fare policy, there is one major factor that the CVTD must take into account.

“We had to have every city in the Cache County district vote in order to get the 0.3 percent tax to fund the current bus system, and if they wanted to, they could withdraw from the district and no longer pay that tax,” Thompson said.

Without the funding from other cities in Cache Valley, the CVTD would no longer be able to run the bus system, putting the CVTD Board of Trustees in a hard position.

“No one else is going to tell us what to do, but we want to take everyone’s opinion into account,” Thompson said.

The Board of Trustees are doing everything they can to make sure that everyone’s voice is heard by holding a town hearing on Oct. 28 at about 6:45 p.m. in the Bridgerland Applied Technology College, which is located at 1301 North 600 West in room 840.

At least one USU student has a prediction as for how the change could affect business.

“Charging a fare would just run the company into the ground … It’s a terrible idea.” said Eric Walker, a music education major.

— shaniehoward214@gmail.com