For years, Fairfax City’s CUE buses quietly collected fares while ridership slid downward. Then 2020 hit. The city suspended fares to limit contact during the pandemic, then formally adopted a four year zero fare pilot, backed by a state ridership grant, that runs through June 2026.  Since then, the results have been striking. Ridership reversed a decade long decline and is on track to exceed 1 million trips this year, about 60 percent higher than before the pandemic, even without adding more s