HART’s Route 1, which runs between downtown Tampa and the University Area Transit Center. Credit: Photo via HillsboroughTransit/Facebook

In a 4-3 vote today, Tampa City Council narrowly voted to allocate $1.65 million to make Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority’s Route 1 free to ride for an entire year.

The funds—previously set aside within the city’s fiscal year 2025 budget—came from money people paid to park in garages in the City of Tampa and would’ve gone towards providing electric vehicle charging stations in city parking lots. At-large Councilwoman Lynn Hurtak had the idea to use this money for the transit authority more commonly known as HART.

“We have a very small percentage of cars that require charging in the city. So is that really a good use of city dollars? And that would impact a small amount of people, where I figured to make Route 1 fare-free for a year was about this amount of money and would open it up and help so many more people,” Hurtak said in an interview to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

The last piece to making the fare-free rides official is a signature from Tampa Mayor Jane Castor. A HART press conference is set for 10 a.m. in the morning on Friday, Dec. 20, on the corner of E Whiting Street and Franklin Street, along Route 1 in downtown Tampa.

Route 1 takes riders along Florida Avenue from East Kennedy Boulevard, in Downtown Tampa, to Fletcher Avenue, into Temple Terrace, and the University Area Transit Center, where it connects to the Bull Runner shuttle servicing the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.

“It connects to USF, it connects to the area near the V.A. So you’re dealing with students, working families, veterans seeking medical care, et cetera,” said Councilman Luis Viera, who is also the chairperson of HART. “It’s a real winner. And so that’s why when Councilwoman Hurtak proposed it, I immediately jumped at it.”

The free service is expected to start on Jan. 5 and last until Jan. 4, 2026. It will also include more frequent stops along Route 1, from every 20 minutes to every 15 minutes.

Also being implemented on the first Sunday of 2025: HART’s new paperless payment system Flamingo Fares. The bus service will be eliminating its paper fare cards in favor of fare payment via smart cards or the Flamingo Fares mobile app. Anyone can still use exact change to pay for a one-way fare using cash.

Another reason for the free fares is to explore the viability of making Route 1 a bus rapid transit route, or BRT. BRTs have their own dedicated bus lanes, stops and platforms, like the SunRunner’s in St. Petersburg. In 2021 and 2022, HART conducted a study for potential BRTs in its footprint, including the Route 1 area. One of the hurdles towards making Route 1 a BRT, Hurtak said, is increasing ridership on the first day.

This was the very reason Councilman Alan Clendenin cast his vote in favor of the funding.

“It’s not about subsidizing the route for riders per se, or picking winners or losers, but because this is the route that is one of the routes that we’re looking at a BRT. I think that it’s a short-term investment, a limited-term investment, and that we could test the viability of BRT,” Clendenin said when voting at the Dec. 19 meeting.

In addition to Councilmembers Hurtak, Viera and Clendenin, Councilman Guido Maniscalco also voted in favor. Councilmembers Bill Carlson, Gwendolyn Henderson and Charlie Miranda voted against it.

Councilmembers Henderson and Carlson took issue with the city funding a HART initiative.

“The vote today is not whether we’re pro transit or against transit, it’s which agency should do it, which agency is authorized and has the responsibility to do it, and that clearly is HART, because it was moved out of the city 40 years ago,” Carlson said.

Councilwoman Henderson cited the fact that there hasn’t been a specific study to determine the need for free fares for Route 1. But, Hurtak pointed to a promising statistic from earlier this year.

“The entire HART system went fare-free after [Hurricane] Milton because people had gone through [Hurricane] Helene…a lot of folks lost their cars in Helene, so we saw a bus uptick then, but after Milton, HART made it fare-free for two weeks. By the end of that two weeks, Route 1, had a 9.5% increase in ridership, just in two weeks of being fare-free,” Hurtak told CL.

During the discussion, different councilmembers mentioned another HART venture, the TECO Streetcar, which recently lost grant funding from FDOT for free service to riders and may resort to charging riders at the start of the year. Members across the council echoed sentiments of support for keeping the Streetcar free, with Councilman Carlson going as far to suggest the city buyout HART’s share of the free service to ensure the city-supported venture remains free.

It typically costs riders of Route 1, and the rest of HART’s network, $4 a day for an unlimited travel pass.

“If you ride the bus to and from work everyday using Route 1, that’s $4 a trip. That’s 20 days a month. That’s $80. That’s a grocery visit. That’s a medical visit for a kid. That’s all sorts of different things that people can then budget,” Hurtak said. “And so I really believe that giving people, who really need the money, the money back to spend within their communities benefits everybody.”

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