For some small-town transit agencies in Virginia, collecting fares not only costs riders money but also costs the transit agency itself. Graham Transit, serving Bluefield near the West Virginia border, for example, collected $7,283 in fares in 2022, less than the estimated $7,468 cost of the fareboxes for the town’s four buses. The same year, Farmville Area Bus (FAB) only received 1.3% of its annual budget from fares.
The 25-cent fare both Graham Transit and FAB riders pay to get on the bus largely goes toward offsetting the cost of personnel time spent collecting and processing those fares. Both agencies would be better off not wasting their resources collecting fares and instead allotting that time and money to delivering better service to town residents.
An argument for fare-free
Just like in cities, residents of small towns and rural areas primarily use the bus to get to work and doctor appointments, to buy groceries, and to visit friends and family — and we are all worse off if people can’t make those trips.
In fact, people in rural areas increasingly rely on public transportation. Between 2007 and 2015, rural bus ridership grew nationally by almost 9%, despite the number of Americans living in rural areas decreasing. Comparatively, urban areas saw just a 2% increase in transit ridership over the same period.
With much of rural America aging faster than suburbs and cities, delivering better rural transit is crucial to protect aging residents’ independence and to empower them to continue participating in their communities. But it’s not just older residents who benefit from quality rural transit.
One report on rural public transit showed half of those surveyed said they would miss multiple doctor appointments if transit wasn’t available. Another report from the American Public Transit Association highlighted the importance of small-town bus services for local economic development and community building.
Unfortunately, rural public transit systems are routinely underfunded, with per capita spending consistently lower than in urban areas — despite recent microtransit pilots in Virginia doubling rural ridership.
Funding fare-free
The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation’s Transit Ridership Incentive Program (TRIP) offers funding each year to help transit systems and the localities they serve try out reduced and free fares on certain routes, for specific populations, or for entire transit systems. Since launching in 2020, TRIP funding has helped eight transit agencies around the state go fare-free or launch robust reduced-fare programs. This program has not only lowered barriers to mobility and boosted transit providers’ ridership but has also eliminated agencies’ costs for fare collection and enforcement, saving them money.
Mountain Empire Transit, which serves the towns of Wise and Norton, went fare-free thanks to TRIP funding, and the result has been life-changing for people in their service area.
“$1.50 for a trip doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but if you’re working minimum wage or you’re trying to feed your family, $3 a day is a lot of money,” said Mitch Elliott, the director of Mountain Empire Transit in an interview with the Virginia Mercury. “I can understand the concerns of public transit being free in systems with millions of riders, but it costs us more to do all the paperwork and collecting than the 3% of revenue we would make off fares. We’re changing people’s lives and how they get around, being free.”
Other small transit agencies, such as Blacksburg Transit, have recognized the financial and societal costs of collecting fares and gone fare-free even without state aid. Before doing so in 2022, Blacksburg Transit brought in less than 1% of its annual budget from fares, so the town was easily able to absorb the cost of lost fare revenue without any problems. This change has significantly helped Blacksburg residents manage the increasing cost of living in the college town, and local leaders have only heard positive feedback.
Beyond TRIP dollars, other funding for fare-free transit could come from regionally specific economic development groups, such as the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission’s Southwest and Southern Virginia Programs and the Appalachian Region Commission’s Area Development Program.
The Farmville Area Bus and Graham Transit gain nothing from collecting bus fares and end up spending their limited resources enforcing and processing fares that could instead be used to deliver more service for residents.
Finn Pollard is an environmental advocacy fellow for the Virginia Conservation Network.
