Sun Tran's new image is set to cost $2.9M!

The move comes just months after the City Council struggled with whether to raise fares or cut service due to the ongoing budget crisis. Ultimately, it did neither.

The new identity for the Sun Tran buses is scheduled for unveiling at an event Thursday morning.

Sun Tran officials were unwilling to discuss the plans because they wanted to keep the details under wraps until their press conference. RTA officials were initially unwilling to talk about the change, but later they provided information about the costs in response to a public-records request submitted to the city.

However, at a public meeting in September, officials described a new gray-and-blue color scheme as having a more "cooling" effect for passengers waiting to board, especially in the summer heat. Sun Tran buses have long been mostly white, with red and yellow accents.

Thirty-seven new city buses ordered to expand the fleet and replace older buses will come with the updated paint scheme, said Jim DeGrood, director of transportation services for the RTA.

After the "unveiling" of a newly painted bus, the Regional Transportation Authority Governing Board is scheduled to consider a contract to paint buses already in the fleet, ultimately to create a more unified identity across the various transit systems in the metro area, said Gary Hayes, RTA executive director.

The new "regional seamless transit concept" is intended to help passengers on all transit systems better understand how they work together, he said.

Along with the new paint job, the RTA plans to spend $5.3 million on updating the fareboxes for Sun Tran, Van Tran and other transit systems.

The ultimate goal is to have all transit systems in the region accept the same computerized "smart card" to pay fares, instead of having different ways to pay on each system, DeGrood said.

The RTA also would like to have a consistent fare structure for the transit system if possible, DeGrood said.

Riders aren't likely to see the farebox part of the rebranding campaign until 2010.

Even after the City Council approved the city budget last June, discussions about whether the city would raise the bus fares by 25 percent remained a hot topic.

Initially, the rate-increase proposal was framed as a dire situation, that if the council didn't approve it, service cuts would be necessary.

The council ultimately decided not to raise the rates, basing the budget on projections of increased ridership. The council decided to see if the greater number of passengers would bring in enough fare revenue to avoid service cuts.

All of the efforts to unify regional transit systems are in keeping with an RTA board vote in 2006, after voters approved the plan, Hayes said. In that vote, the board said it wanted to move toward regionalization of all of the transit systems, Hayes said.

With the economy staggering nationwide, RTA officials have seen a dip of about 5 percent to 10 percent in sales tax collections the last several months — below what was expected when the plan was crafted. Still, they don't expect the current subpar tax receipts to greatly affect the 20-year plan.

The Sun Tran and RTA event Thursday will be held in the Grand Lobby of the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave., from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. If you attend, plan to park in Lot B off Granada Avenue.