One glaring error in the article: in Sacramento at least nobody (if the ticket cops are around) rides for free. State workers get a discount - the same one they would get if they use any transit service anywhere in the state - 75% off the monthly pass cost up to $65 - after that it's on the employee. At Sacramento's current rate, a monthly pass is $35 for state workers, which is the going rate downtown for about 2 days' parking. Other employers especially downtown provide various incentives too, and I think most college students get the pass as part of their student ID card (for which there is a mandatory fee) each semester/quarter. The student thing is common; my daughter pays for a local transit pass as part of her ID card fee too, in a town where they run lots of buses to the campus (but many fewer elsewhere). Bottom line: except for those who would never pay anyway (just try getting money out of the turnip), nobody rides free.

Of course, for non-governmental employees especially transit pass incentives may be an endangered species soon. The business tax deduction (up to around $110/month I think) for doing that is one of the things that expires if we go over the fiscal cliff.

Strange connection between Sac and SJ: we have a small gaggle of your original light rail cars. Apparently RT picked some up for what the managers at the time thought was scrap value, as did Salt Lake City if I recall correctly. SLC rebuilt and used them on their starter line - rebuild was apparently cheaper than buying new. Don't know if any are still running. In Sac though they just sat rusting until a year or 2 ago. Some have now gone thru the local shop to figure out what needs to be fixed (a LOT, and most of it isn't just from sitting around for 10+ years), and a contract was recently announced to go thru all of them and make them usable. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be compatible with any of RT's existing cars so we'll have to wait and see what use actually get made of them.