Sabina Wohlmuth’s days used to incorporate lengthy, sizzling walks throughout town of Albuquerque, typically 2 or 3 miles at a time. Wohlmuth depends on the bus, however when she was brief on money, she walked as a substitute of paying the fare.
“It was solely a greenback for a one-way journey, however nonetheless, when you’re homeless and also you’re poor that’s some huge cash,” Wohlmuth says.
Wohlmuth now takes the bus every single day, to her job at McDonald’s, to the shop, and to the sober residing facility the place she stays. And every of these bus journeys prices Wohlmuth zero {dollars}.
Albuquerque made zero-fare transit everlasting in November 2023, turning into one of many largest U.S. cities to implement zero-fare transit. A couple of yr and a half later, transit officers and advocates say the zero-fare program is working as meant, by serving town’s lowest-income residents. As another midsize cities stroll again their plans to make transit free, in Albuquerque this system is sticking round.
“This can be a public service, and the individuals we serve actually depend on it,” says Leslie Keener, director of the Metropolis of Albuquerque’s transit division. “I believe it’s a option to actually simply open up entry and create mobility so that individuals have the chance to have some upward motion.”
Mobility for survival
Almost 90% of Albuquerque’s bus riders have family incomes of lower than $35,000 per yr, and the same share don’t have entry to a automobile. Making it simpler for town’s lowest-income residents to get round is a part of what Christopher Ramirez calls “the primary function of public transit.”
“Transit fairness is giving the individuals which might be most in want the sources, after which construct out” different facets of public transit, corresponding to routes and frequency, says Ramirez, the cofounder and govt director of Collectively for Brothers. In 2017, the group performed a group well being impression evaluation that led to a deal with transit fairness advocacy. Since 2019, the group group has led a coalition to push at no cost transit in Albuquerque.
Many bus riders in Albuquerque are experiencing homelessness, and depend on the bus to get to medical appointments, social service suppliers, work, and to go to family and friends.
Charles Battiste says he takes the bus every single day. On a Wednesday in February, Battiste was using the bus west on Central Avenue, town’s foremost thoroughfare, from a methadone remedy program to a resort the place he’d just lately secured momentary housing on the opposite aspect of city.
Q, a 32-year-old who has been unhoused since they have been 18, additionally rode the bus down Central Avenue that day in the wrong way, to choose up some cough drugs at a hospital. Like Battiste, Q depends on the bus every day.
“Transportation comes up regularly as one of many high limitations for our purchasers and people we serve in accessing healthcare, jobs, housing, all the issues that we all know are the structural options to homelessness,” says Rachel Biggs, chief technique officer at Albuquerque Well being Take care of the Homeless.
“We all know individuals in Albuquerque are stretched actually skinny, even the parents who aren’t already . . . experiencing homelessness. The numbers of individuals residing in poverty and who want transportation help simply proceed to develop, and now we have plenty of transit-dependent residents.”
Biggs says her group beforehand spent about $50,000 per yr buying bus passes for purchasers so they may make appointments, search for housing, and get to work. This created a “actually cumbersome system” that concerned purchasers shuttling from town’s shelter on the far west aspect of city to Well being Take care of the Homeless’s workplace early within the morning to choose up a free each day bus go, then “turning round and getting again on the bus” to achieve their locations for the day. Month-to-month passes have been much less possible due to the frequency that individuals experiencing homelessness misplaced their passes amid encampment sweeps, Biggs says.
“Particularly if you’re experiencing homelessness, time is a really beneficial useful resource,” she says. “So to have the ability to get round city and never must undergo all of the hoop-jumping, so that you could now hop on and hop off, it does improve entry to all of the providers and all of the issues that somebody would want to finish their homelessness.”
For different Albuquerque residents, free public transit serves as a lifeline, an important mobility choice when cash is tight or different transportation falls by means of. One 67-year-old lady discovered herself on the bus after her automotive was repossessed as a consequence of difficulties making ends meet just lately. “It’s good to have one thing that’s free, if you’ve all the time pushed, you’ve all the time paid insurance coverage, and also you pay for nearly all the things,” she says.
Erica Grier, who works as a part-time caregiver and makes use of a Part 8 voucher to afford housing, makes use of the bus every single day. She estimates that she beforehand spent a minimum of $20 per 30 days on the bus, cash that’s now again in her pocket to pay for groceries and different month-to-month bills. “It’s a great service that town supplies, similar to how the library is free,” she says.
Keener says town has seen ridership shift because the pandemic launched a brand new period of distant work and Albuquerque launched free transit: fewer commuters, and extra individuals experiencing homelessness who can now extra simply use the bus to achieve their locations or who’re utilizing it as shelter from the weather.
Recovering ridership
Ridership has steadily elevated since Albuquerque first piloted zero fares in 2022, with general ridership up 20% prior to now three years. Metropolis officers credit score the zero-fare program with serving to ABQ Trip’s ridership numbers creep again up towards pre-pandemic ranges.
Like Albuquerque, Kansas Metropolis, Missouri, made headlines when it grew to become the primary main U.S. metropolis to go fare-free in 2020. However 5 years later, the Kansas Metropolis Council voted to carry again $2 fares in an try to stave off main service cuts amid a price range shortfall.
However for now, a minimum of, it looks like Albuquerque’s free fares are sticking round.
Fare income beforehand “wasn’t a lot of something,” in accordance with Keener, and introduced in about $3 million in income earlier than the price of accumulating fare was deducted. That represented a drop within the bucket for the transit company’s $67 million annual price range, comprised of about $23 million from town’s transportation infrastructure tax and about $8 million from the county and different regional authorities entities. The remainder of the price range is backed from town’s Basic Fund to the tune of about $30 million annually.
Town’s just lately authorized price range for fiscal yr 2026 saved this subsidy, and town “stands behind its zero-fares system,” Keener says, including that the company’s focus proper now’s on increasing routes and rising service frequency. ABQ Trip served 7 million riders in 2024, which is about 78% of the company’s pre-pandemic ridership numbers—however ABQ Trip can be working at solely 64% of its pre-pandemic service, with diminished frequency on many routes and a few headways of as much as an hour.
ABQ Trip is within the means of implementing a revamped “restoration community” that goals to carry the company again to about 95% of pre-pandemic service, in accordance with Keener, since returning to 100% of service ranges wouldn’t be financially possible. The proposed restoration community contains streamlining and restructuring some routes to offset prices of accelerating frequency and night and weekend service. The reconfiguring is anticipated to extend the variety of residents inside a half-mile of a route with frequent service.
Ramirez views increasing frequency as the subsequent step after making buses free.
In line with Ramirez, ABQ Trip has lengthy tried to do “so much with somewhat,” with the restoration plan elevating questions of whether or not the company ought to deal with having as many routes as potential or bettering service in high-passenger areas. “We want extra frequency within the locations that want it most,” he says.
“The bus ought to be for everyone,” he provides. “It ought to be to attach individuals who want it most to get the place they should go. It’s individuals getting to varsities, it’s individuals attending to work, it’s individuals getting open air, it’s individuals getting meals, it’s individuals attending to healthcare.”
This story was supported with grant funding from the Neal Peirce Basis.
This story was initially revealed by Subsequent Metropolis, a nonprofit information outlet protecting options for equitable cities. Join Subsequent Metropolis’s e-newsletter for his or her newest articles and occasions.
