Unlike last year, Pinellas won’t cut transit services for 2025 — it’ll add

Pinellas County’s public transit agency has the money to keep all its routes and add new services in the next year, its staff said Wednesday.

Those include more bussing between Eckerd College and Grand Central and, if the agency’s board of directors approves, a new route to move tourists between St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport and the beaches.

The sunny projections in the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year, which begins in October, mark a contrast to last fall, when a tight budget forced the agency to slash several low-ridership routes. The $121 million budget anticipates a $1.1 million surplus as the agency makes changes to some of its fares.

There are no plans to change the base rate of $2.25 per ride, the agency said, nor to adjust the $5-per-person daily cap on fares. The budget calls to increase the monthly fare cap from $70 to $85.

Most riders who hit that threshold are part of the agency’s Transportation Disadvantaged program, which gives low-income residents unlimited rides for $11 a month. The rest of their fares are covered by state funding, and increasing the cap would allow the transit authority to take in state money it was previously leaving on the table, CEO Brad Miller said.

The other change involves the agency’s mobility-on-demand service, through which customers with disabilities get Uber or Lyft rides for a flat rate of $4.50. That would remain the base rate, but riders would cover additional costs for rides that go above $25.

“We think both of (the changes) have fairly low impacts on the actual riders of the services,” Miller said in an interview Tuesday.

The agency also projects increased fuel and maintenance savings as it continues to replace its aging diesel fleet with fully electric buses. Six of those buses are on roads today, according to the transit authority, with two more hitting streets in July and several others arriving later this summer. It expects a total of 20 in use by October.

The additional service between Eckerd and Grand Central, partially funded through a state grant, is built into the preliminary budget and ties into the addition of bus-and-turn lanes on 34th Street S. Darden Rice, the transit authority’s chief planning and communications officer, said at a board meeting Wednesday that the agency is still working on the details of the limited-stop service.

Express airport-to-beach service is not yet part of the budget but could be paid for with the surplus funds, Miller said, and some board members were enthusiastic about the proposal.

“I use that airport all the time,” said Oldsmar Mayor Dan Saracki, the transit authority board’s vice-chairperson. “I think that is a great new idea to move people to that airport.”

Budget season continues through September, when the transit authority’s board will have two public hearings and a final vote on the budget.