CT Could Be First State to Offer Free Transit for Veterans

Robert Lyke served his country as a sailor during the Vietnam War. Now he lives in East Windsor and needs regular care at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Newington, but getting there is a grind. No public bus stops near his home, no easy alternative.

“Veterans get treated with the things they earned putting their lives on the line,” Lyke said. More bus service in East Windsor, and cheaper fares, would be “very helpful,” he added.

Lyke is far from alone. Connecticut is home to roughly 152,000 veterans, and a significant number of them struggle with basic transportation access. That gap has long meant missed medical appointments, job interviews that never happened, and services that went unused not because veterans didn’t qualify, but because they couldn’t get there.

Connecticut may be on the verge of doing something no other state has done: making bus fares free for veterans, statewide, with no disability requirement attached.

Both Ned Lamont’s budget proposal and the General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee budget include $1 million for the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover free transit for veterans. They also both include $2.5 million for the Department of Transportation to fund half-priced fares for veterans and K-12 students, a benefit the legislature already approved in a bill passed last year but never funded.

That earlier failure is a sore point. Transportation Committee co-Chair Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Branford, called it “a significant oversight on the legislature’s part” during a public hearing on the issue last month. The half-fare program for veterans and students was authorized, then left without money to actually run.

This year, lawmakers and the governor appear determined to fix that, and then some. If the free fare program moves forward as expected, Connecticut would become the first state to make free bus service available to veterans system-wide, regardless of disability status. Most existing discounted fare programs around the country operate at the county or town level, are tied to a specific transit agency, or require a qualifying disability to access.

Lamont made his support clear when he announced the proposal in February. “Connecticut has a strong network of bus services statewide, and enabling our veterans to use them at no cost is something we should enact,” he said. “Our veterans have provided so much to every person in our country, and this is another way we can show how much we appreciate and value their service.”

House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, offered equally firm backing. He said he “couldn’t imagine” the General Assembly voting against it, calling it something that has his “full support.”

Brian DaConto, a veteran and retired employment specialist with the Connecticut Department of Labor, has seen firsthand how transportation barriers pile up. Struggling veterans need reliable ways to reach work, job interviews, food pantries, and medical appointments. Free bus rides would chip away at all of those obstacles at once.

The geographic reality of Connecticut makes transit access especially complicated. The state’s bus network is real, but it thins out quickly once you leave the urban centers. East Windsor, where Lyke lives, is the kind of place where coverage gaps cost people real access. A free fare means nothing if a bus never comes.

That tension is worth watching as the budget moves through the legislature this spring. The $1 million for free veteran fares and $2.5 million for the broader half-fare program represent commitments, but advocates and veterans have been down this road before. The 2025 session authorized a benefit, then left it unfunded. The question now is whether this year’s budget finalizes the money and whether the service network can actually get veterans where they need to go.

For Lyke, the goal is straightforward. Veterans earned their benefits through their service, and the state should make sure they can actually use them.