BUS FAIR? To cover additional costs associated with billing for the BruinGO! Program, the City Council is expected to raise fares it charges UCLA students, faculty and staff who travel on Line 10.
The new fares will be $.69 for local service, an increase of 6 cents, and $1.67 for express service, a bump of 11 cents.
In September 2002, as part of a one-year pilot program with the goal of reducing the demand for parking on campus, UCLA requested Big Blue Bus enter into the BruinGO! Program. Anyone with a Bruin identification card may pay for the use of a Big Blue Bus by simply swiping the card across the electronic farebox, which identifies the rider as a Bruin participant and then bills that fare to the university.
In the first year of the program, rider-ship increased by 40 percent amongst Bruins. Last year, there were over 1.2 million passengers.
The change in fares is to help offset costs associated with the new, electronic billing technology.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on February 28, 2006. Read the original PDF.