The bus and train fares of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority increased on Monday, September 15. On the eve of hikes, there was not yet enough notices on the buses and trains, just some randomly placed small pamphlets. They were too tiny to be found, and apparently no one noticed.
It had been the first increase of fares since 2010, when daily fares increased by 25 cents and monthly passes increased by $13. In 2014, the one-way ride went up from $1.50 to $1.75, a monthly pass jumped up from $75 to $100, and a one-day pass went from $5 to $7.
The reason behind raising fares is clear: the enormous cost for extensions to the railways such as the Gold Line toward Montclair, the Purple Line reaching UCLA, and the Expo Line approaching Santa Monica. MTA raised its fares for apparently collecting money for these plans; nonetheless, expanding rail ways will probably decrease the L.A. traffic and save Angelenos’ time.
The fare increases do come with a new benefit. For one-way riders, the price hike may seem unfair. However, the new $1.75 fare includes a free transfer within two hours, meaning it can now pay for two bus rides. All ticket vending machines, ads and new fare notices alongside windows on trains show the new Metro fares to passengers, but these free transfer opportunities are not well publicized. If passengers don’t know about the free transfers, they may be forced to pay an additional $1.75 or purchase a day pass.
Full-time student prices remain the same. For full-time students who are taking more than 12 units, they are eligible to buy a $35 semester-long pass, which is the same as last semester. Part-time students do not get a discount on single fares or one day passes but do get small discounts on monthly and weekly passes. They save only $5 on monthly passes and 75 cents on weekly passes.
These new rates can harm students’ educational plan. They may give up school because the transportation fee became higher than they anticipated. It could also be the reason they have to drop classes or skip studying at the library.
Transportation fees are just one expense for students, who also have to pay for classes, books, and sometimes required class materials. The hikes may harm students indirectly, and some students might not be able to afford the transportation fee, thus ending their education.
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Actually your wrong in a lot of areas. First of all Metro did post ALOT of notices on busses, trains, at the rail stations, and was also announcing it way before it took affect. Probably about a good month I would say. Also Metro did NOT raise fares to cover the new expansions they are doing with the rail. They raised them because of rising Operating costs for the busses along with people evading the fare which cost metro a lot of money over the last couple of years. They still have the LOWEST fare base in the nation. Check online because the facts are there. Students have also taken a liking to Metros wide diverse system and to this day they are still increasing metros passenger numbers because of how cheap and easily accessible metro is setup to they’re schools and colleges.I know people who work at MTA who have the real legit reasons and proof as to why metro did what they did. Do some research and get facts to back up your article before posting next time. It’s entirely fair and people seem to be happy with it. Have a nice day and just an FYI the College student pass ISNT $35 it’s $43. Look on metros site. Bye
Several factual inaccuracies here. For one, the expansion is funded through dedicated sales taxes which the voters required be spent on construction and not operations. The parts of the sales taxes that can lawfully be spent on operations already are. State and federal funds likewise tend to be either exclusively for construction or exclusively for operations.
Fare revenue had fallen to about 25% of operating costs, and all other sources of operating funds were already being used. With one of the lowest fares in the nation, a fare hike was overdue (and for those who transfer, the new transfer policy actually cuts fares). Maybe it could have been structured better – the change in the single fare to pass ratio is strange – but fares had to go up. The only other alternative would be getting two thirds of voters to approve more tax funding or cutting service – the former wouldn’t get approved in a non-Presidential election year, and the latter would be worse for transit-dependent communities. Fare hikes are never good, but sometimes they’re the least bad alternative.
If the price of bread, milk or water increases….do students also get affected and stop going to school or libraries? Metro has raised its fares before, but it’s not like there was a mass halt in school atttendance. Quite the contrary, it increased. Plus, without the fare increase, there would have been service cuts so less students would have the opportunity to commute to school.
This arguement is extremely singular focused with no logical thought. Plus, who goes to libraries in 2014 when you have the Internet?