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[AZ] Phoenix-area bus riders facing an end to free transfer

 
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Cyberider




Joined: 27 Apr 2007
Posts: 501
Location: Tempe, AZ

PostPosted: Wed Aug 29, 2007 5:14 pm    Post subject: [AZ] Phoenix-area bus riders facing an end to free transfer Reply with quote

Phoenix-area bus riders facing an end to free transfers

Sonu Munshi
Cronkite News Service
Aug. 27, 2007 12:04 PM

Most weekdays, Maria Parra gets to her job at Sears by bus, paying $1.25 and grabbing a transfer slip to travel a mile east on one route and a mile north on another. Her parents give her a ride home.

That same ride may cost Parra $2.50 in a few months as transit provider Valley Metro and the Phoenix City Council weigh changes including an end to free transfers and higher rates for monthly passes.

Valley Metro wants those who make day trips to buy $2.50 all-day passes, which will be sold on buses, rather than use free transfers. Assuming a trip and a return, the cost would be the same. But that's of little comfort to a one-way rider such as Parra.


"Why should I have to pay $2.50 all of a sudden?" Parra said as she waited for a bus near her central Phoenix home.

Valley Metro officials acknowledge the impact to those taking the bus one-way, but they say eliminating transfer slips, tokens and tickets would help streamline the fare structure. The passes would be valid for trips on local buses and on the light rail, slated to begin service in December 2008.

"It's an adjustment," said Susan Tierney, a Valley Metro spokeswoman. "But we need to continue to operate efficiently."

Valley Metro also has proposed raising the price of a regular one-month pass from $34 to $45 and the price of a one-month express bus pass from $51 to $68.

Tierney said those rate increases, which would be Valley Metro's first since 1994, are needed to cover rising gas and labor costs and to expand service.

Under the plan, the cost of a one-day pass would drop from $3.60 to $2.50.

Valley Metro recently held public hearings on the proposed changes. The Phoenix City Council is expected to make a final decision sometime this fall. If approved, the changes will be effective Dec. 1.

Out of 58 million trips taken annually on Valley Metro, about 15.5 million involved a transfer request, Tierney said. In addition to streamlining operations, eliminating transfer slips would stop fraudulent use by some riders, she said.

Two experts said transit agencies nationwide generally have offered transfers for free or at a discounted rate.

Mark Hickman, an associate professor at University of Arizona and a research specialist in transportation engineering, said many transit agencies are moving to the one-day pass idea, pricing it lower to encourage use.

Being forced to buy a pass instead of a paying for a single ride is difficult for lower-income riders, said Lurae Stuart, senior program manager of bus technical programs at American Public Transportation Association, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit advancing public transit.

"Many dig their quarters out of their couch to make that one ride," Stuart said.

Sun Tran, which provides public bus service in Tucson, offers up to two free transfers in a two-hour window. Michele Joseph, Sun Tran's director of marketing, said there are no plans to eliminate transfers.

At a sizzling bus stop in Phoenix one recent afternoon, Pedro Borbon said he barely has the money for a single ticket.

"I take the bus one way if I have to go somewhere and ask a friend to drop me home," he said.

Parra said she'll just have to pay more.

"I'm still gonna have to go to work," she said.
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