{"id":171834,"date":"2026-02-27T19:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/171834\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T19:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T19:06:08","slug":"jta-approves-new-fares-for-connexion-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/171834\/","title":{"rendered":"JTA approves new fares for Connexion Plus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Transportation Authority board has approved a revised fare structure for Connexion Plus, as well as adjustments to other expenses to stabilize the budget.<\/p>\n

The Connexion Plus rate adjustment comes after the community protested earlier plans to reduce the private-ride service, followed JTA\u2019s commitment to continue the service.<\/p>\n

Beginning April 2, the new fare structure<\/a> is set at $10 for the first 12 miles and $2.50 per mile thereafter, with no limit to the number of monthly trips. Seventy-five percent of Connexion Plus customers travel 12 miles or less per trip, JTA said.<\/p>\n

The fare structure is necessary to cover increased costs, JTA says. It will stay in place for a six-month pilot period, then get reviewed by a JTA task force.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe JTA is committed to ensuring financial stability across the agency, while maintaining the services we provide for this community,\u201d JTA CEO Nat Ford said in a news release. \u201cThe adjustments made today, while difficult, are necessary to ensure we end this year with a balanced budget while preserving the transportation services that citizens of Northeast Florida rely on each and every day.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

How Connexion Plus works<\/p>\n

Connexion Plus is available to people certified as disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act or Transportation Disadvantaged program. It operates from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day. Customers needing its private ride service can call the JTA at (904) 404-0848 at least two hours before desired pickup time.<\/p>\n

The JTA initially proposed ending the single-rider Connexion Plus service earlier this year and continuing only a multipassenger Connexion service. But in January, the board decided to keep the single-rider program<\/a> after protests at town meetings.<\/p>\n

That resulted in a fare starting Feb. 1 based on miles traveled, plus a new limit of 40 trips per month. After multiple meetings with community partners, advocates, city officials and nonprofit executives, a new rate proposal was reached on Connexion Plus service.<\/p>\n

The JTA board also approved $14.2 million in expense reductions this week due to sales tax revenues coming in almost $11 million lower than projections, officials said. That revenue makes up more than half of the authority\u2019s operational revenue budget.<\/p>\n

There has been a budget surplus on sales tax projections in 11 of the last 13 years, but this year\u2019s revenue is trending lower than anticipated, JTA officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expense reductions will include a 15% salary cut for senior leaders and a reduction of administrative positions. Other expense reductions include eliminating some professional service contracts, renegotiating other contracts and bringing some technology services in-house.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Jacksonville Transportation Authority board has approved a revised fare structure for Connexion Plus, as well as adjustments…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":171835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-171834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=171834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/171834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/171835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=171834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=171834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=171834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}