What should Metrolink do to solve its financial deficit?
Cuts: Weekend service, off-peak, and reverse commute
5% (1 vote)
Cuts: Spread the cuts across all service, including peak commute
5% (1 vote)
Fees: Raise fares
35% (7 votes)
Fees: Create a parking fee
35% (7 votes)
Install turnstiles, stop cleaning restrooms, and get a refund on their new-but-broken locomotives
20% (4 votes)
Total votes: 20
Comments
Parking fees might be a good
Parking fees might be a good medium-term solution. BART has had success with semi-reserved parking. There is free and paid parking, and then the paid parking becomes free at 10AM or something.
However, there aren't many good connections to Metrolink stations and many don't have a lot of anything around them. I would only implement paid parking where parking is scarce.
Parking fees
Metrolink stations are owned by the cities they are located and a handful already charge for parking. Unfortunately, unlike with BART, any parking fees would not go to Metrolink.
Lots of possibilities
1. Advertising! Wrap ads around trains (like on some buses), video monitors at stations and on trains with useful information and lots of commercials. Sell ads on tickets and passes - they could double as coupons when no longer needed.
2. Bigger, better stations with retail space. Wouldn't it be nice to grab breakfast while waiting for the morning train?
3. First class cars - pay a premium for nice leather seats, plush carpet, wood paneling, a free newspaper and cup of coffee...
4. Wifi - for an extra fee.
5. Lockers, some big enough for bicycles or scooters, with power for recharging electronics and scooters. Rent by the day or by the month.
6. Lower wages and benefits - probably not going to be very popular with the employees, but this isn't brain surgery. Why should these people be paid insane amounts of money? Want a good paying job? Go back to school!
7. Electrify the system - big initial expense, but huge savings over the coming years.
8. Charge for restrooms. $.25 per use is not unreasonable.
9. Senior and disabled discounts should be based on income too. Seniors with millions in the bank don't need a break on their transit fares. This will probably have to be on the honor system - it would be very hard to verify.
10. Raising fares will probably have the opposite effect - driving people away from transit and decreasing the amount of money they receive. Why take transit if it costs as much or more than driving an old clunker?
11. I think, in the long term, it would be better to hand the system over to Metro and let them gradually convert to heavy rail (elevated, not subway). We could have trains running as fast as 100MPH. They seem to know what they're doing. I haven't heard about any cuts in Metro Rail service, or massive fare increases....
Anon, you have some good
Anon, you have some good ideas and here are my comments on some of them.
2. This is going to be important as more people take transit in the future, but most Metrolink stations are ghost towns when trains are not running. Fullerton Station, for example, sustains a cafe but most stations do not have the traffic to sustain a business all day. Union Station definitely needs more retail space, as there's only an overpriced restaurant, a convenience store, and a bagel shop.
3. You gotta buy the cars first...
4. Another good idea, but the cost of implementing it is probably a barrier right now.
6. You don't want the people in control of the train making low wages.
8. Haha, no.
11. Metro has no trains that run 100 MPH. Metro hasn't had huge cuts yet because of Measure R, a half-cent sales tax measure. One of the provisions was to freeze fares for a year. I personally think Metro could use a fare increase.
>You don't want the people in
>You don't want the people in control of the train making low wages
Not lowwages, but modest wages. Maybe $15 or so per hour?
>most stations do not have the traffic to sustain a business all day.
A part time breakfast cart could work - or a "roach coach". There should be enough business to stay open for the first couple trains of the day.
At the very least, Metrolink could lease out space to vending machine companies who could build small rooms with a dozen or so machines and a couple microwave ovens, like you see on most college campuses.
> Metro has no trains that run 100 MPH.
The subway cars used on the Red/Purple line have the potential to go as fast as 100MPH.
Maybe we should think about redoing Measure M so it's more like Measure R. A larger percentage of the tax could be guaranteed to transit. That should be enough to prevent the proposed cutbacks AND provide for new rail services. If LA can do it, so can OC.