Fairfax City is considering whether to keep a fare-free policy in place for its CUE bus system.
The city’s CUE buses stopped collecting fares in mid-2020 when the pandemic started. In 2022, the city adopted a four-year zero-fare pilot program that will expire at the end of fiscal year 2026, according to city documents.
With that end now looming, the city conducted an evaluation of the zero-fare policy to help shape fare decisions moving forward.
CUE saw a steady decline in ridership between 2008 and 2020, according to James Gomez, transit project manager with the consultant Kimley Horn, which has been leading the evaluation. Ridership started increasing after the suspension of fare collection in 2020.
“This coming year, CUE is expected to exceed 1 million rides, and we’ve seen about a 60% increase from the pre-pandemic levels of ridership,” Gamez said when providing an update on the policy to the Fairfax City Council last Tuesday (Nov. 4).
Over the last five years, CUE has experienced the biggest ridership growth compared with other regional providers like Metrobus and Fairfax Connector. The Fairfax County system increased its prices last year for the first time since 2017 after considering going fare-free, but ultimately tabling that proposal in favor of a half-off discount for low-income riders.
CUE’s growth was driven by the zero-fare policy but also due to other factors, including the in-person return of George Mason University students and rising development, according to Gamez.
The evaluation also found that the zero-fare policy benefits the community by reducing transportation barriers. Gamez highlighted a 2022 on-board survey that found 63% of riders said they would use the system less if a fare was charged. A more recent survey from earlier this year showed that 91% of riders supported the zero-fare policy.
“We also asked about why they ride CUE service, and two of the things that came up really focused on transportation costs,” Gamez said. “So, 58% of the respondents said that they ride CUE to save money, and another 42% because they do not have their own personal vehicle.”
Getting rid of fares also saved dwelling time, or the amount of time a bus spends waiting at a stop, according to the evaluation. It showed that each fare transaction adds roughly three seconds of dwell time, while eliminating fares reduces dwell time by two hours per day or 600 hours per year.
Lucas Muller, a mobility planner with Kimley Horn, discussed the operational impact of reinstating fare collection, noting that it would likely change from how it was previously done.
“If you were to start introducing fares, you need to purchase the fare boxes. That’s an upfront investment,” Muller said. “But unfortunately, these fare boxes tend to be a bit finicky and tend to break down. And largely, that means that if that fare box is not working, the bus needs to be taken out of service.”
The negative impacts of not collecting fares include less rider data, decreased revenue and increased loitering, according to Muller. During the pilot, the city has been offsetting some of its lost revenue with a grant from the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DPRT).
Muller said if the city wants to continue the zero-fare policy, it would need to offset the cost by boosting other revenue sources or cutting services to keep the budget balanced.
If fare collection is reinstated, the evaluation showed CUE would likely see a decrease in ridership that ranges from 11 to 34 percent. Resuming fare collection could also cost the city anywhere between $225,000 and 365,000 in the first year. However, the city could potentially see $220,000-360,000 in revenue in the following years.
Fairfax City Mayor Catherine Read highlighted the positive impact of the zero-fare policy and appeared to oppose changing it.
“The juice is not worth the squeeze for a few thousand, because all of these other impacts could mean that the ridership drops, or the students coming into the city drops — things that are much more difficult to measure the negative impact,” Read said.
The city council plans to integrate the evaluation into the fiscal year 2027 budgeting process.
