The University of Florida has amended its decision to now partially fund two of the Regional Transit System's most popular routes for the upcoming school year.
During the city's Aug. 14 General Policy Committee meeting, the city's chief operating officer, Andrew Persons, said UF representatives told him the university is willing to provide $215,143 in additional funding.
Persons said UF's decision will allow for an additional bus for Routes 5 and 8 during peak hours during the fall and spring semesters when school is in session. Persons defined the peak hours as from 7 to 11 a.m. and from 3 to 7 p.m. when classes are in session.
Additionally, Route 5 will improve bus frequency from 80 minutes to 40 minutes during peak hours and Route 8 will improve from 90 minutes to 45 minutes.
UF's fall semester begins Aug. 21 and ends Dec. 3. The spring 2026 semester begins Jan. 12 and ends April 22.
Persons said at the meeting the city would need to allocate another $166,316 for both routes to offer service at 100%.
Related news: City of Gainesville officials finding new ways to cope with loss of RTS funding from UF
Cynthia Roldan, UF's director of public affairs, wrote in an Aug. 15 email to The Sun that UF is committed to advocating for and making decisions that prioritize responsible stewardship of its students' funds and values the partnership with the city and looks forward to continuing to work with them on the matter.
"For over a year, we have worked closely with student leaders and other key stakeholders to ensure that our students' transportation fee is used efficiently and are pleased that a solution has been reached regarding routes five and eight," Roldan wrote.
The decision comes after city staff presented to the commission on Aug. 7 a summary of proposed service changes due to a loss in funding from UF that would see the number of routes RTS services decreased from 40 to 26.
The funding loss from UF has reduced RTS' operating budget from $12.7 million to $9.8 million a year — a decrease of around 22%, according to a June city press release. In the press release, it said UF is reallocating some of its resources toward campus-specific transit options like the Campus Connector shuttle service.
Commissioner Ed Book called it temporary good news and said Routes 5 and 8 are among the most popular in the city. Route 5 runs from the Rosa Parks Downtown Station west down University Avenue and Newberry Road to The Oaks Mall. Route 8 runs from UF Health to the Walmart SuperCenter in Northwest Gainesville.
Book added that while Routes 5 and 8 will need some additional funds from the city, Routes 15 and 43 won't be funded at all by UF and will cost $356,525.
Persons said RTS needs $522,000 to make up the deficit in order to have full service for all four routes.
Commissioner Casey Willits said the routes are kind of the spines of the city with Route 5 going across town from east and west, and Route 8 going north to south. Willits said Route 8 is essential to drop off riders at UF Health Shands Hospital.
Mayor Harvey Ward told The Sun on Aug. 15 he is happy UF is helping to fund and ramp back up Routes 5 and 8 and that the city has found the money in its budget to fund its portion of Routes 5 and 8, and fully fund Routes 15 and 43.
Besides UF, Ward said the city also partners with Alachua County, Santa Fe College and the Federal Transportation Administration to provide funding for RTS.
He said Gainesville and Tallahassee are the only two cities in the state that run their own transit systems. Ward said in due time, he thinks the community should have a deep, long conversation about how the transit system should be run in the future.
"I'm not saying were going to stop transit, I'm saying we're a grown-up community and we need to take a hard look at how we're doing transit," Ward said.
This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: UF agrees to add over $200,000 in funds to RTS bus routes
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