Committee backs fare-free Ride On, funds ambassadors and several transit pilots and CIP changes

The Montgomery County Council Transportation and Environment Committee on an apparently unanimous voice agreement endorsed the County Executive’s recommendation to make Ride On fares free in FY26 and approved several related operating and capital budget changes, including a $250,000 line item for transit ambassadors and a pilot for automated bus-lane enforcement.

The endorsement comes amid staff and council discussion about sharply falling fare recovery — “fare recovery in 2015 was 20 percent … in 2019 that dropped to 16 percent, and we’re now at 2 percent,” a committee speaker summarized — and concerns about preserving service levels and safety if Ride On goes fare-free.

Committee members and agency staff framed the proposal as both a social-service measure and a budget decision. One committee speaker said they had advocated previously for free fares for youth and noted that earlier free-fare pilots produced a rapid increase in youth ridership. Department staff said the executive’s package would add approximately $17.5 million in net expenditures across the Mass Transit and Grant funds, driven largely by personnel and nondiscretionary adjustments in the countywide budget.

Staff described a modest set of operating additions tied specifically to the fare-free rollout: $250,000 for a “Fare Free Ambassador” program intended primarily for outreach, messaging and some contracted staff presence at stops and onboard (not to hire new full-time employees), and a $160,000 operating addition for a WMATA-run automated bus-lane enforcement pilot (WMATA would provide the…