After 20 years of relying on the bus in Kansas City, Robert Hinton has his routes mapped out: the 35 to get to medical appointments at the veterans hospital. The 63 to pay his utility bills. The 31 to run errands. When things are close enough, he’ll walk, like when he goes to Metro Lutheran Ministry once a month for food assistance.
As a disabled Army veteran who is on Medicare and relies on a social service agency, Hinton should qualify in multiple ways for functionally free bus fare. That’s the program that will continue to offer free fare for eligible riders after the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority starts charging fees for bus rides again in June.
But Hinton hasn’t heard anything about how the functionally free fare program will work, or who will give him a bus card. KCUR spoke to multiple social service agencies whose clients rely on buses, and they say they haven’t heard anything from officials about what functionally free fare will look like…