Starting October 1st, the popular SunRunner free rapid bus service will cost riders the same fare as any other county bus.
The Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority board voted Wednesday to impose full fares on the SunRunner, which shuttles between downtown St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach, a month earlier than planned. The Tampa Bay Times reported:
The move comes in the wake of pressure from St. Pete Beach residents, who have complained about homeless people riding the bus into their community, and from Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri. The sheriff said he saw imposing a fare as the only way to stem an increase in activities such as panhandling, sleeping on the beach and shoplifting.
The fares will be in line with what the transit authority charges for its other routes — $2.25 for a regular ticket, $1.10 for those eligible for reduced fare — but will be payable only by “contactless” options such as a debit or credit card or Flamingo Fares card, not cash. They will apply to riders anywhere on the SunRunner.
The transit authority’s plan to charge a 50-cent fare on beach-bound routes only was scuttled last week, with board members saying they needed Wednesday’s meeting to discuss what to do. Some said they saw the 50-cent plan, intended to dissuade homeless people from riding to the beach, as discriminatory.
Rene Flowers, a county commissioner who serves on the transit authority board, motioned for the Oct. 1 change after Gualtieri said he’d be willing to continue to place extra deputies near the SunRunner’s last St. Pete Beach stop until then, at a cost of $10,000 a week to the Sheriff’s Office. Before then, Flowers said, the transit authority needs to meet with the Sheriff’s Office and social service organizations to start looking for ways to better serve homeless transit riders.
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