Wausau transit director proposes automatic fare collection; commission refers contract to finance

The Wausau Transit Commission unanimously voted June 18 to send a proposed automatic fare'collection contract to the city finance committee after the transit director outlined costs and operational changes.

The transit director said switching to the Milwaukee'run Wisco Fare Collection System would let riders pay with credit and debit cards, purchase a reloadable physical card at retail locations and use an app with a daily fare cap. He cited an annual service fee of $24,002.60 and an estimated upfront implementation cost of about $133,900 that the agency expects to cover with existing grant funds. "I don't think fare increase is gonna cover that completely," the director said, adding that he expects the city's portion to be covered and that grants would absorb start'up expenses.

On potential fare changes, the director said the current single'ride adult fare of $1.75 would move to $2 and the senior fare from $0.85 to $1 under his initial examples; he also cited peer cities' fare caps as models (daily $4, weekly $20, monthly $60 for adults). "So it could potentially increase ridership," he said when describing how caps can remove the need to buy a day pass for occasional riders. The director emphasized the proposal is preliminary; any fare adjustments would require public meetings and separate approval.

The director also argued the new system would reduce driver contact and safety risks associated with paper transfers. "We had a driver who touched a transfer slip that somebody had put fentanyl on, and we had a driver... we had to call an ambulance," he said, noting the system would let the app and card handle transfers automatically.

Commissioners asked logistics questions about physical cards, app integration and whether the fare/payment app would combine with the planned bus tracking system; the director said the fare app and AVL/tracking would be separate systems that could run on the same cellular/Wi'Fi connection but would not be a single merged app.

Mister Weems moved to send the WSCO electronic fare contract to the finance committee for review; Alder Lukens seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.

Next steps: the contract will go to finance for review and any proposed fare adjustments would be presented later at public meetings for comment and final action.