MTA Board of Directors could vote today to increase a range of bus fares
LOS ANGELES Facing an estimated $10 million deficit in the next fiscal year, the MTA Board of Directors will be faced today with the daunting and controversial task of possibly raising bus fares.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board of Directors is scheduled to hold a public hearing this morning on the potential fee hikes, also discussing several other proposals, including one by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to raise the fees at a more modest rate than what’s on the table.
The MTA staff is proposing to increase token fares by.15 cents per trip, $2 for a day pass, $6 for weekly passes, $23 for monthly and $37 for the EZ transit pass.
The changes, if approved, would go into effect July 1. The staff is also proposing changes again in 2009, increasing cash fares by another.75 cents, token fares by another.75 cents, the day pass by $3, the weekly pass by $12, the monthly pass by $45 and the EZ Pass by another $45.
The MTA has adjusted fares just once in the past 12 years for buses and trains, all the while increasing services as it adhered to a 10-year consent decree issued by the federal government, said Marc Littman, spokesman for the MTA.
The consent decree,which was in effect from October 1996 to October 2006, resulted in the MTA purchasing 2,100 new buses, adding the Metro Rapid buses and freeway express service. The court-appointed order required the MTA to increase services and restricted its ability to raise fares, according to Littman.
In some cases, fares have actually decreased over the past few decades.
The kindergarten through 12th grade monthly student pass was sold for $22 in 1982 and is sold for $20 today.The senior citizen cash fare in 1988 was.55 cents per trip. It is now.45 cents.
In 1988, bus riders were paying 44 percent of the cost to operate the entire transit system. That number has decreased to 24 percent today.
“We’ve been racking a massive deficit,” Littman said. “If we don’t do anything new, we’re projecting a $1.8 billion deficit over the next 10 years.”
The Bus Riders Union has been vocal in its opposition to the proposed fee hikes, demanding that the MTA look to other alternatives to balance the budget, such as cutting back on the rail lines.
The union is instead proposing that the agency stop the extension of the Exposition Light Rail and cut back or stop the Gold Line, adding more rapid bus service instead, said Francisca Porchas, lead organizer of the union, which represents half a million bus riders in Los Angeles County.
The Green Line has very low ridership as opposed to the rapid bus lines, Porchas said.
Further, the union proposes reducing the current monthly bus fare from $52 back to $42, which was the fare before 2003.
“We do think that there needs to be other alternatives to balancing the budget on the backs of the poorest people in the entire county,” Porchas said.
UCLA student Bonnie Foote was waiting for the MTA red rapid bus line on Wednesday afternoon, toting a small crate of fruit to the bus stop at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fourth Street. As a special student bus pass holder, Foote said she doesn’t think she’ll be affected by the fee increases.
“I would hope the city would look at alternative ways of funding, but at the same time, I sympathize with the MTA,” Foote said.
Rather than fighting the agency on the fee hikes, riders should ask the county and state to provide more funding to the MTA, she suggested.
The MTA records more than 300,000 boardings for 73 miles of track every day and 1.3 million boardings a day on 4,000 miles of bus routes, Littman said.
“If you shut down the entire rail system, you can’t make up the deficit,” Littman said. “If you lay everyone off in this office, you can’t make up the deficit. It’s that big.”
The MTA deficit affects nearly every person in Los Angeles County, regardless of whether they walk, bike, ride the bus, or drive, Littman said. The MTA funds streets and highway projects and street lighting, as well as other projects.
“We don’t want to raise fares, we don’t want to cut service,” Littman said.“We kept putting it off after all this time and now we’re in a unique situation because the court told us to put more buses (on the road) than we could afford to operate.”
The proposed fee increases could also impact riders of other bus systems, such as the Big Blue Bus.
The EZ Transit Pass allows riders to use several of the bus systems in LA County at a fixed cost, including Big Blue, the Culver City line and the Montebello lines.
If the MTA increases the EZ Transit Pass rate to $95, it will force all the other participating agencies to adjust their rates to the same price, said Dan Dawson, spokesman at the Big Blue Bus.
The Big Blue Bus is affecting changes in its own policies, eliminating free transfers and introducing a day pass on July 1 that allows unlimited trips for $2.50 a day.
The MTA will be looking at other transit agencies across the country in how they have adjusted fares and addressed structural deficits, said Santa Monica Councilmember Pam O’Connor, who serves as First Vice Chair on the MTA Board of Directors and will become chairwoman in July.
The board will have to consider whether fares will be adjusted, and if so, by how much and over what period of time, she said.
“If we do not (cut the structural deficit), we are going to have to cut services or go bankrupt,” O’Connor said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 24, 2007. Read the original PDF.