Metro's fare policy

Metro is changing a policy for those don't pay a bus or train fare:

Fare evaders caught by Metropolitan Transit Authority police now are issued a citation charging them with theft of services, a Class C misdemeanor heard in Houston Municipal Courts. The new procedure will allow those cited to settle the ticket by paying a $75 civil fine to Metro. After 30 days, outstanding tickets will be sent to the courts for criminal adjudication.

The only thing missing from this story is the number of people who have been ticketed for fare-evading. This would be especially interesting to know, considering Metro has had a problem actually collecting fares for MetroRail. In September Lucas Wall wrote a story specifically detailing Metro's fare collection and verification system, or lack thereof. He wrote that the light rail train is "designed to operate on an honor system with random checks for fare payment."

Now why is it that Metro train riders are assumed to be honest and trustworthy, but Houston car drivers are presumed to be guilty red light-runners who must have cameras watching them go through intersections?

The rest of Wall's story today is about the smart card system that still isn't working:

[...] the Metro board met [...] to discuss options for gaining compliance on a contract with Cubic Transportation Systems, a San Diego company hired to supply a "smart card" fare system Metro says was supposed to have been ready for the opening of the rail. Cubic disputes that it is to blame for the lengthy delay.

The Washington (DC) Metro requires every person to buy a ticket and enter the ticket into a turnstile and the turnstile doesn't open 'til it checks the fare ticket. Houston opens its light rail with a combination honor system/unfunctioning smart card system. That's some new kind of business strategy! No wonder Metro requires millions upon millions of taxpayer dollars.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/17/04 08:52 AM | Print |

Bookmark and Share

Previous Entry | Home | Next Entry


 SITE MENU

+Home
+About
+Archives
+BH Commentary (RSS)
+Bloggers
+Blogroll
+Contact Us
+Forum
+Local News Headlines
+Syndication
+Twitter

 ADVERTISING

 DISCLAIMER

All content © 2004-09, blogHOUSTON and the respective authors.

blogHOUSTON.net is powered by Nucleus.

Site design and Nucleus customization are by Kevin Whited.