UTA fares to fall April 1

When does a UTA fare increase mean riders pay less? April 1.

And that's not an April Fool's Day prank.

The agency said Wednesday that people will pay less to ride starting on that date, despite a fare increase. The reason is that a pair of fuel surcharges implemented last year will be peeled away.

The result is that adult cash fares for buses and TRAX light rail will drop from $2.25 to $2, and the adult monthly pass will slip from $74.50 to $67. The premium monthly pass, for riders of express buses and FrontRunner, will fall from $175 to $162. FrontRunner's base one-way fare will fall from $3.50 to $3, while the 50-cent-per-stop add-ons remain.

The fuel surcharges were put in place last year because of sky-high diesel-fuel prices. Those surcharges delayed the agency's implementation of a fare increase that originally was scheduled for Jan. 1.

"UTA is fulfilling our promise to remove the surcharges when the price of fuel dropped according to the guidelines we implemented

last year," said UTA general manager John Inglish. "Removing the surcharges on April 1 is tied to the average price of fuel from October to December of last year, which dropped below $3."

Fuel surcharges are based on swings in diesel-fuel prices. UTA tracks the average fuel prices reported by the U.S. Department of Energy each quarter and adds or removes a surcharge three months later.

The first surcharge was added July 1, after an average diesel price of $3.49 per gallon from January through March. The average price hit $4.39 from April through June, prompting a surcharge implemented Oct. 1.

Because the third quarter saw an average price of $4.36, both surcharges remained in place Jan. 1. The fourth-quarter average shrank to $2.92, causing the April 1 removal of both surcharges.

In announcing the changes Tuesday, UTA cautioned that the surcharges are directly tied to diesel-fuel prices, while fare increases support its overall operations. The April 1 fare increase, previously approved by the agency's Board of Trustees, is designed to maintain operations and keep pace with inflation, UTA said.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com