This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Disabled bus riders and advocates for the poor assembled outside a Utah Transit Authority hearing Tuesday evening to protest a proposed fare surcharge to pay for rising diesel costs.
"High fares are unfair," they chanted.
Then they went inside but left angrily when officials declined to let them speak out publicly at the microphone.
The agency proposes a 25-cent hike to riders on July 1. Its advertised public hearing drew about 20, though all but six left when UTA General Manager John Inglish told them a court reporter at the meeting would take their comments individually. UTA conducts most of its public hearings that way instead of with a common microphone, Inglish said.
The plan raises tickets by 25 cents per ride or $8 per monthly pass - to $66.50 - for an adult who pays full fare. Low-income riders can avoid the surcharge if they have a state-issued Horizon card.
Barb Toomer was one wheelchair user and bus rider who would have protested the increase but left instead. She said she feels duped to have voted for the last quarter-cent sales tax supporting UTA when she thought it would get her better bus service. Instead it seems mostly funneled to TRAX light rail and FrontRunner commuter rail.
"Better service to [UTA] means better TRAX," she said.
"Now they're screaming for more money and they've got top management that's making more than the governor."
Some of the bus riders left the hearing shouting, "UTA sucks" and, "You ruined the bus system."
Inglish said there is no option but to charge more for fuel price increases because the agency can't get more from its sales-tax revenues and doesn't want to cut service at a time when gas prices might drive more people toward transit.
The fuel charge, while potentially temporary if diesel ever drops below $3 a gallon, would amount to the third UTA fare hike in a year. Riding the bus or TRAX trains cost $1.50 until last July, but rose to $1.60 and then $1.75 in January.
The 25-cent increase could be followed rapidly by one or more additional fuel surcharges, because UTA's plan would add another quarter to the bus and TRAX fare for each dollar per gallon that diesel prices rise above $3. And diesel already costs more than $4 per gallon, which would mean a second 25-cent charge starting Oct. 1 unless the price drops soon.
The trigger is a quarterly average in the Rocky Mountain region, as calculated by the U.S. Department of Energy, though the fare increase would lag by three months to give riders notice. So the increase on July 1 would be 25 cents because the average diesel price from January through March was about $3.50. But because the current price is $4.12, the surcharge could grow to 50 cents on Oct. 1.
Another 25-cent fare hike unrelated to fuel is scheduled for Jan. 1. That means if the board approves the surcharge proposal later this month and diesel prices stay where they are, a bus or TRAX ride will cost $2.50 next year.
The price increase is steeper on the new FrontRunner commuter trains: 50 cents July 1 and another 50 cents Oct. 1, if diesel prices stay above $4. Monthly FrontRunner passes would rise from $145 to $160 on July 1, plus another $15 in October.
State Rep. Christine Johnson, D-Salt Lake City, met with UTA officials before the hearing to complain that it's unfair to set future increases without calling for public comment each time. She also complained that Tuesday's hearing was the only scheduled for Salt Lake County, and its location at UTA headquarters, 3600 S. 700 West, was not easily accessible for city residents.
Some bus riders outside the meeting worried that a price hike would hurt ridership and, in turn, force UTA to cut routes. Inglish said he doubts it.
"The price of fuel is making the cost of driving by automobile increase by a lot more than 25 cents a trip," he said.
Fares are expected to cover about 16 percent of UTA's $177 million operating budget. The agency budgeted $15 million for fuel in 2008 but now expects to pay $20 million, spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said. It already has cut $2.7 million from that deficit with a hiring freeze and a cutback in such contracted services as janitors, she said.
Fare hearings
More UTA fuel surcharge hearings are planned this week, at the Provo City Library this evening and Weber County Commission Chambers in Ogden on Thursday, both at 5:30 p.m.