Chronicle reports on METRO's fare planning
We commented on METRO's plans to increase transit fare revenues back on June 27, thanks to a heads up from Laurence Simon.
Yesterday, the Chronicle's transportation reporter Rad Sallee wrote about the possible likely fare increase. Here is an interesting excerpt:
Houston's transit fares are among the lowest of any big U.S. city, [METRO President and CEO Frank] Wilson told the board. But Metro riders really pay much less per ride than even that fare.
Dividing total fare revenue by passenger boardings works out to just 43 cents per boarding.
That's partly because Metro offers a bewildering array of discounts — 65 different fares, varying with who you are, where you go, and how you pay, and various combinations of these. There are peak and off-peak fares, zone fares, student fares, senior fares, senior-over-70 fares, fares for the blind and disabled, local, express and Park & Ride fares, tokens, 7-day passes, 30-day passes, 365-day passes.
Then there are losses caused by cheating. Metro doesn't know how big these are, but they are sizable, said chief financial officer Francis Britton.
It might be possible to hold the base fare at $1, Wilson said Thursday, if the 43-cent recovery per rider could be increased enough through a revised fare structure, better enforcement and more riders.
Revising the fare structure to make it less convoluted seems like a good idea, but it might not boost ridership or fare-revenue per rider. The city has never been very serious about enforcement of fares on the light rail, or it wouldn't have designed the system the way it did, so that's not going to produce a significant increase in fare revenue. And attracting more riders is hard to do when METRO keeps cutting bus service (even though METRO Solutions promised a 50% increase in bus service), and altering bus routes to inflate light-rail ridership even though the forced transfers are less convenient to riders.
Fare simplification AND increases seem imminent for METRO riders, even if that promised 50% increase in bus service does not seem to be.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/04/06 04:30 PM | Print |
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