fares
A 33% fare increase in the works?
A lot of riders have expressed their desire to pay more to maintain as much OCTA bus service as they can, and rumblings in the background say a fare increase may be on the books for September 2009.
OCTA staff answered a question about fare increases on the May 22 public hearing:
It is not feasible to raise the fare to a level that could totally avoid service cuts. For example, doubling the fare to $3.00 per boarding requires an $8.00 day pass and a $100 monthly pass and results in an additional $16 million in revenue. However, it is estimated 1/3 of the existing ridership would be lost; additional fare increases would deflect so many riders that revenues would actually decrease. A more feasible fare increase is shown on the chart below. This option would generate about $8 million with an approximate 4 million boarding - about a 7 percent deflection rate.
Regular fare Day pass ACCESS Current fares $1.50 $4.00 $2.70 Adjusted fares $2.00 $5.00 $3.60
Again, a fare increase is not official, but it seems very likely that OCTA will continue its trend of cutting service and raising fares. read more→
