Citing rising fuel costs, UTA seeks more fare hikes

The high price of fuel isn't just a headache for roadhogs anymore.
    The Utah Transit Authority is proposing a fuel surcharge for bus and train riders starting in July, adding a quarter to a bus or TRAX ride and 50 cents on the new FrontRunner commuter trains. A monthly adult pass for bus and TRAX rides would spike $8 to $66.50 if the UTA board approves, and the FrontRunner's initial monthly pass will jump from $145 to $160.
    TRAX rider Heidi Livoyochi saw it coming, but the Sugar House resident still grimaced when she heard the news while pumping quarters into a fare box at the new Planetarium Station.
    "It doesn't surprise me because they have to pay for gas just like we do," she said while wrangling her two young sons on the platform after a visit to the Discovery Gateway museum.
    Another quarter likely won't force her from the rails, she said, but only because her kids ride free.
    UTA needs 6.1 million gallons of diesel this year, and a 25 percent price increase since Jan. 1 has the agency looking at a $5 million annual shortfall unless it acts. The options are to hack service by 8 percent across the board, delay construction of new rail lines or impose the surcharge, spokeswoman Carrie Bohnsack-Ware said.
    The board will decide next month whether to impose the charge, which would follow two fare hikes in the past year and precede another one scheduled for January. The surcharge would fall off of the ticket price if diesel prices fell below $3 a gallon. But it would double if prices reached higher than $4.
    Advocates for low-income Utahns already have tussled with UTA over perceived slights to bus service in favor of trains, and Bill Tibbitts, of the Anti-Hunger Action Committee, said the fuel charge is a further slam to the needy. Long-distance commuters may handle the increase fine, he said, but imposing it for those who ride only in the city seems unfair and likely will reduce ridership. Price hikes already imposed over the past decade are partly to blame for a drop in bus ridership, Tibbitts said.
    "At $2, most trips within the city are just not a bargain," he said.
    Low income riders using a state-issued Horizon card to buy their monthly passes will not be affected, UTA officials said.
    A legislative audit of UTA in the winter found that bus ridership had declined from 24 million in 1999 to 21 million in 2006, though overall system ridership grew with the advent of TRAX.
    At current prices, mass transit will remain attractive to commuters even with the surcharge, Bohnsack-Ware said. Most people driving from Ogden to Salt Lake City daily will spend more than the Front-Runner's monthly pass even if it climbs to $160.
    "In the long run it's still a better deal to ride public transportation than an individual car," she said.