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Southern California Transit Advocates is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion, development and improvement of public transportation in the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

Comments to Metro Board of Directors on proposed fare structure for Dual-Hub BRT

Southern California Transit Advocates strenuously objects to the proposed fare structure for new Line 910 (Metro Silver Line), to begin operation this December. Our objections are based on the following:

  1. Although the proposed fare is based on Metro's present base cash fare and express zone charges, it essentially makes the entire line a two-zone express, regardless of the distance traveled by the passenger. This not only compromises the existing fare structure for express service, it penalizes the relatively short-distance traveler and rewards the longer-distance traveler by charging the same fare for both trips. For example: A passenger traveling from El Monte Station to LAC-USC Medical Center would pay the same $2.45 as one traveling to the same location from the Artesia Transit Center. While a flat fare works well for local stop service, the Silver Line is decidedly not a local service line, and we believe a "one fare fits all" policy is counter-intuitive for it.
  2. Allowing the day pass to be used for full fare without an express upgrade to be paid penalizes the regular monthly or weekly pass-carrying passenger while rewarding the passenger who buys their pass day-to-day. Unless it is staff's intention to lower the amount of monthly or weekly pass sales in favor of increasing day pass sales, we find this to also be counter-intuitive.
  3. Imposing a special fare structure on Line 910 places every other express service that Metro runs on either transitway at either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on your point of view. We offer as examples Lines 485, 487 and 489, which will continue to operate on the El Monte Busway after the implementation of the Silver Line. Travel on those lines between downtown Los Angeles and the Cal State L.A. busway station has no zone charge, yet a passenger who might be destined for that stop, or the aforementioned LAC-USC Medical Center stop, will be dissuaded from taking the Silver Line if it comes sooner, because the fare will be $1.20 higher even though it runs on the same busway and serves the same stops on the busway. (A similar situation exists on the Harbor Transitway for Lines 442, 445, 460 and 550, which will continue to have a one-zone charge along their northern express segments, compared to the equivalent of a two-zone charge for passengers who opted for Line 910.)
  4. The proposed Silver Line fare is also at odds with other express lines with travel segments as long as either busway, but with one-zone express charges. Prime examples of these are Line 534 along the I-10 freeway between downtown and Santa Monica, and Line 577X along the I-605 freeway between El Monte and Norwalk Stations.

We also are including a matrix of peer agencies that provide express service and note that only those agencies that operate their express service with premium (touring coach) equipment or point-to-point (no intermediate stops) commuter service have flat fares regardless of distance traveled. We believe this comparison proves that the staff proposal is out of line with the industry as a whole.

Additionally, while researching the matrix, we were unable to find any instances of other agencies that operate more than one line in the same corridor, making the same stops, and with the same destinations, that have disparate fares for those lines. We feel this is further proof of the proposed Line 910 fare being unrealistic, compared to the rest of the public transportation industry.

We recognize that Metro staff has had to deal with conflicting areas of interest, including pricing the Silver Line to be competitive with Foothill Transit's Silver Streak service without being predatory. However, we believe the staff proposal creates more problems than it solves.

Therefore, we propose that the Board instead place Line 910 under the existing express fare policy, with the same zones and zone charges as the existing services on both the Harbor Transitway and the El Monte Busway, with a maximum of two zones to be charged for any trip. (We believe the number of passengers that would ride on both transitways on a single trip, thus technically creating a three- or four-zone trip, is going to be so low as to be negligible, so having a two-zone fare cap provides a slight advantage to a statistically insignificant number of patrons.)

(The matrix referenced above may be viewed here, in Excel format.)