Transit ridership is down 4.3 percent so far this year — a decline officials blame on fewer homeless people using the Free Fare Zone in downtown Salt Lake City as a result of Operation Rio Grande.
“With the shifting distribution of the homeless, we’re getting significantly reduced numbers in the Free Fare Zone,” said Steve Meyer, the new interim executive director of the Transit District of Utah, which was called UTA until Tuesday.
That news came in a board committee meeting on Wednesday, the second official day of operation as the new TDU. That name change was ordered by the Legislature through a new law to restructure the agency, which took effect Tuesday.