Iowa City kicks off free bus fare program

IOWA CITY, Iowa (KCRG) – People can ride the city bus for free starting Tuesday in Iowa City.

Johntrell Day is one of many people that relies on the bus to get to and from work every day. He says not having to worry about the $1 to 2 fare will take a weight off his shoulders.

“It’s kind of hard on our family because it’s like a lot and we’re not really financially off too well. So, the dollar there, dollar back every day it starts to take a toll and add up some,” Day said.

Day just started a new job and said the timing for the free fares couldn’t be better.

“When my mom told me and some other friends told us about how it was going to be free from now on for two years, I was like oh that’s perfect,” Day said.

Other daily riders expressed how much riding the bus can cost, and how much money they will be able to save.

“You’re paying anywhere between a dollar or two dollars a ride, I mean put that times 30,” said Adam Caviness, another Iowa City bus rider.

But they also expressed concern over how the city will make up for the gap in revenue from the bus fares.

Fare Free Iowa City is a two-year program, and Darian Nagle-Gamm with Iowa City Transit said part of the fares will be covered by money they’ve received through COVID-19 relief funding.

“All transit agencies across the United States received some funding necessary to maintain our operations during the pandemic as you might imagine, ridership was significantly impacted. So it’s in part funding by that and through local funding sources that we usually use to pay for and operate the transit system,” said Darian Nagle-Gamm, transportation director at Iowa City Transit.

They hope to take this beyond two years.

“We’ll be continuing to evaluate different methods that we can use to help to potentially fund it for the future, Nagle-Gamm said.

Riders say this program will go beyond helping pay for a ride to work.

”I help out shelter houses a lot because we used to be in and out of them. So growing up there, I see a lot of people just struggling to get where they need to go if it’s like appointments or food shelters to get stuff, but now that the bus is free, it’s going to be perfect to help out people who are down on their luck or people who don’t have that dollar to get where they need to go,” said Day.

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