Rider Outrage May Lead Metro to Tweak Fares

Some riders, including off-peak subway customers, senior or disabled Metrobus users, and MetroAccess passengers, would see no increase.

Metro estimates that the plan would generate about $111 million and that some, but not many, customers would stop riding. Nearly three-fourths of the money would come from the increase in rush-hour train fares, an additional 25 percent from increased parking charges and 1 percent -- about $1 million -- from higher bus fares for cash-paying riders.

Advocacy groups such as the Riders' Advisory Council, which is appointed by Metro, and MetroRiders.org, have challenged the need for a fare increase. They have also questioned the current fare-increase process. Metro is asking for an increase in the current fiscal year, even though the anticipated shortfall isn't projected to materialize until the next year.

The package that goes before the public this week also has many unknowns because the increases are so large. In the past, when Metro has raised peak rail fares by a nickel or a dime, there has been no loss in ridership, officials said.

Backers of the proposal to raise subway fares during rush hour, when there are the greatest number of riders, say that would be the most efficient way to increase revenue. Half of all subway riders receive some kind of transit subsidy, according to the agency's latest rail passenger survey. More than 40 percent of subway riders in the morning rush are federal employees who have little flexibility to commute after 9:30 a.m., when rush hour ends.

But officials don't know for sure what riders will do because Metro has never sought to raise the minimum subway charge by 30 cents.

Some of the biggest increases would hit commuters who park their cars at suburban lots and take longer subway trips -- an estimated 10 percent of riders, according to Metro.

In Montgomery County, where daily parking fees are $4, commuters who park at Shady Grove and ride round-trip to Metro Center during rush hour would pay $14.55 a day, or $2.75 more. That amounts to $13.75 more a week.

From Vienna to Metro Center, a commuter who parks and makes a round-trip, rush-hour commute would pay $13.70 a day, an increase of $2.85 over the current $10.85. For the week, that would mean $68.50, or $14.25 more than it costs now.

District officials pushed to raise the cost and number of reserved spots to generate revenue because many stations have waiting lists. Metro has a waiting list of 1,635 people at about a dozen stations, less than the 3,500 recommended in the proposal.

If more spaces are set aside for reserved parking, there will be fewer spaces available for other parkers during the morning rush. "I don't think my colleagues know what it's like to drive in winter to a parking lot and see row upon row of empty spaces they can't use," Kauffman said, referring to the frustration of daily users.

After 10 a.m., anyone can park in an empty reserved spot. But no one knows, for example, how many people would do so.

"If you have substantial numbers of reserved spaces staying empty because the reserved parkers don't come, then your parking revenues and your rail revenues go down," board member Benjamin said.

Metro officials have said the fare increases, the first in four years, are needed to pay for boosts in service, such as running more buses and eight-car trains to improve reliability and reduce crowding.

If Metro provides a minimal level of additional service in the next fiscal year, expenses would grow by $20 million. This additional service would include operating new rail cars, extending Yellow Line service to Fort Totten during off-peak hours and ending the Red Line turn-back at Grosvenor-Strathmore during off-peak periods.