No Escape

I never really thought I’d see the day when I’d be paying more for gasoline than for milk—$3.94/gallon for gas at the club store vs. $2.99/gallon for skim milk (store brand) at the local grocery chain. It’s ridiculous. It makes me wish I were riding a cow to work.

So, in an effort to save money—and as much as I’d like to say that I was trying to do my part for the environment, economics is really all I was considering—I decided to buy a bus pass for July. The way I see it, I’ve spent about $110 on gas this month (two $45 fill-ups, plus $20 last night to get me by until my next paycheck). A bus pass is $58.50 for a month. The bus picks me up two and a half blocks from my house (it used to be half a block, until route changes were made a few months ago) and drops me off right in front of the building where I work. The bus pass also counts towards the price of my train fare when I head to Ogden to game on Thursdays. And if I need to get to somewhere that’s inconvenient by bus, well, there is still the car.

So I went in today to buy my bus pass. Alas, they don’t actually start selling them until tomorrow. And even more alas, the price has gone up. The Utah Transit Authority, it turns out, has begun adding a fuel surcharge to all its fares. The normal one-way bus or light rail fare of $1.75 has been raised to $2.00. The one-way FrontRunner train fare from SLC to Ogden has been increased from $5.00 to $5.50. And the monthly bus pass has been increased from $58.50 to $66.50.

The good news about this, I suppose, is that the base fare hasn’t changed. The fuel surcharge is a temporary measure based on diesel fuel prices as determined by the US Department of Energy. So if the price of fuel drops, the fuel surcharge will go away. The increase is not inherently permanent, which is a good thing.

The bad news is that if the price of diesel tops $4.00/gallon for the quarter, the fuel surcharge will go up again, and fares will increase by the same amount. The normal one-way fare will increase to $2.25, the FrontRunner fare will go up to $6.00, and the monthly bus pass will go up another $8.00 to $74.50. And if diesel tops $5.00 a gallon, the fuel surcharge will go up yet again and fares will be increased by the same amount.

Still, it’s cheaper than driving....