What free transit looks like in Albuquerque, nearly two years after the city eliminated fares

Albuquerque made zero-fare transit permanent in November 2023, becoming one of the largest U.S. cities to implement zero-fare transit. About a year and a half later, transit officials and advocates say the zero-fare program is working as intended, by serving the city’s lowest-income residents…. “This is a public service, and the people that we serve really rely on it,” says Leslie Keener, director of the City of Albuquerque’s transit department. “I think it’s a way to really just open up access and create mobility so that people have the opportunity to have some upward movement.”