Free Rides on Atlanta Streetcar Continue Until 2016: Mayor

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The ambitious and costly Atlanta Streetcar project will continue to provide free rides for residents and tourists until the end of the year, Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced on Tuesday.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, riders were to expect a $1 fare starting in April, but Reed announced during Central Atlanta Progress’ annual meeting that the free rides would last a further eight months. Rides on the streetcar have been free since the system opened in late December.

Quizzically, the extension of free riding time does not match with the city’s projections for the yearly operating cost of the system. The AJC says that planners predicted last year that it would cost $3.2 million a year to run the system; now, it’s estimated that it will cost $4.8 million a year, a 50 percent increase.

Original budgets had predicted that the flow of fare money would help pay for about 25 percent of the system’s operating costs, but with that money not coming until January of 2016 at the earliest, it’s not known how the city will make up for the lost revenue and cover all project costs.

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