SALT LAKE CITY — Free fare for 48 hours this Thursday and Friday was a relief for regular riders like Marlowe Williams.
“Finding out that it was a free fare, it saved me a few trips because I didn't have cash on me. My card actually got stolen," he said. "So it's nice.”
Williams took the FrontRunner train all the way up to Ogden for the long weekend.
“I noticed, moving from California, out there, there's so many buses and trains," he said. "People take them all the time. Out here, not so much.”
UTA hopes these free fare days will persuade more Utahns to try leaving the car at home for once, and continue to do so, even when the rides have a cost.
“We see the ozone layer," UTA spokesman Carl Arky said. "In the winter, we see the inversion. We've got to do something to try to address this, and this is one good way of taking people off of the road, but also introducing people to mass transportation and public transportation when it's not necessarily been part of their culture.”
This Thursday and Friday weren't the only free fare days this year, but they will likely be the last. UTA has used all of the government funding that allowed them to do the free rides, Arky said.
“It'll be interesting to see what happens in the legislative session coming up," he said. "This coming year in January and in February, I've got a feeling it'll probably be revisited, and so we'll see where it goes from there.”
As Utah’s population keeps growing, Arky says we can’t keep building more roads and expanding highways.
“It's going to reach a tipping point," he said. "I really think that at some point down the road in the future, more people, especially the younger generation, are going to say, 'Hey, you know, it's easier to get around using public transportation than it is to own an automobile and then try to get somewhere in that car.'”
UTA did see a spike in ridership during "Free Fare February," but riders told FOX 13 the only way to get more people on trains and buses is to make 'Free Fare Forever.'
“I would like to see that though because I like to be around people, you know, especially downtown in Salt Lake," said Williams. "But people don't seem to take advantage of it. Not that I've noticed so far at least.”
