SMART extends free fare program for youths, seniors

Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit will continue to let youths and seniors ride for free through June 2026.

Touting the success of its pilot program aimed at boosting ridership, the agency said overall ridership rose 43% from 67,421 travelers in March 2024 to 96,100 last month.

The increase was attributed to an influx of new riders 18 and younger and older than 65, said Emily Betts, planning manager for SMART. In March, seniors accounted for 17% of riders and youths comprised 26%, Betts said.

“That was a 103% increase over last March,” Betts said.

The pilot program, which launched last April, was set to expire at the end of June. The board approved the one-year extension on Wednesday.

Before the program started, SMART had been strategizing about how to win voter support for a tax renewal after failing in 2020. The board decided to throw its energy into getting more people onto trains and off the road to show the value to voters.

The pilot program was derived from a previous free summer fare program for youths. That program accounted for a 152% increase in youth riders, from 12,551 in 2019 to 31,573 in 2023, said Eddy Cumins, general manager of SMART.

At the time, youths and seniors represented 42% of the populations of Sonoma and Marin counties, but only 21% of SMART riders. The pilot program has increased the share of youth and senior riders to 42%, mirroring the population share of those age groups, Betts said.

As expected, youth ridership surges during the morning and afternoon commutes, before school starts and after classes end. Senior ridership peaks midday, and most trips are social or recreational outings, Betts said.

The program cost about $365,000, based on the amount the district estimates it could earn if youths and senior riders were charged.

Officials said the program is worth the cost.

“The idea was, you could easily spend $365,000 on a marketing campaign, and you may barely move the needle on ridership,” Cumins said. “This board invested that in free fares, and it doubled ridership in those two segments.”

Cumins said critics focus on the farebox return, or the “farebox recovery ratio” — the difference between expenses and fares — to measure whether a transit agency is successful.

Cumins said a metric called “investment per passenger mile” provides a clearer picture. The metric is equal to how much the district pays per passenger mile traveled.

In 2024, the investment per passenger mile was $1.81, the lowest of any transit agency in Sonoma or Marin counties, the district said.

That number will drop to about $1.60, according to an estimate for the fiscal year ending on June 30. The district’s farebox recovery ratio is estimated at 5.8%.

SMART board members said they support the strategy to boost ridership through free fares.

“It’s always good to remind folks that this is the community’s train,” said Marin County Supervisor Eric Lucan, a member of the board. “They’re paying for it every time they’re buying something at the groceries, or shopping online or whatever — that’s paying for the train.”

Marin County Supervisor Mary Sackett, also a board member, said she is happy to see that youth ridership is so high on the destination and return trips. Sackett said she’s worked on Safe Routes to Schools for a decade and getting buy-in from the community is hard work, so the jump in ridership numbers are significant.

“We put a lot of money and energy into those programs in Marin County for sure, and we don’t see these kind of returns,” Sackett said. “And we talk about school traffic as one of the biggest generators of congestion, so I think this is a really, actually huge piece of data we should let people know about.”