Farecards

Posted by on . 10 comments.

I’m crazy busy today, so let’s have a discussion, yes? Read this interesting Times piece on the effect of a shift in MTA farecard policy. Next, talk about the optimal fare policy, and specifically what changes you’d like to see WMATA make. The obvious first best answer is the eye-scanner from Minority Report, so please skip that and begin with your second-best solution. Agreed?

Comments

  1. Daniel Hall says:
    July 16, 2008 at 2:47 pm

    Is everyone here clear on what the actual system is in DC? Because I think that will help us guess what some of the problems might be.

    You can buy a 7-day unlimited ride WMATA pass. (Some people don’t know this.) Unfortunately it’s only for the trains (no buses) and it costs $39. Or you can buy one for $26.40 that lets you take short trips (and again, no buses). Want a bus pass? Add $11. Compare that to $25 for a weekly all-mode pass on MTA.

    Oh, and forget using your SmartCard for the pass. Nope, you’ve got to buy a flimsy paper farecard. Don’t lose it! Don’t demagnetize it! Oh, and don’t forget your paper bus transfer!

    Does your office give you MetroCheks? Forget using WMATA’s convenient automated system that lets you link and collect your money with your SmartCard. You can’t buy a weekly pass with those funds, silly! Nope, make sure you office manager will still issue you paper MetroCheks which you can redeem in Metro vending machines to buy your paper pass.

    I may not know what utopia looks like, but let’s start our conversation with the level of fares and the blatant effort by WMATA to make weekly passes as user-unfriendly as possible.

  2. monkeyrotica says:
    July 16, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    What is so difficult about using a SINGLE card for weekly or monthly trips, that you can use on Metro or Bus or MARC train, and that you can add funds to at will? Why wasn’t this implemented YEARS ago? They could have put all the cash they blew on those useless (next train in 22 minutes) monitors and had a real smart card that everyone can use anywhere.

    One Card to rule them all, One Card to find them, One Card to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

  3. Alex B. says:
    July 16, 2008 at 3:17 pm

    The problem with the unlimited ride pass is that it flies in the face of what WMATA does with distance fares and peak hour fares. NYC has 2 dollar fares no matter the time, no matter the distance. The math for saving money on an unlimited ride is easier, then. That’s much harder for both patrons to guess at and for the agency to plan for with the distance fares.

    The SmartTrip problems are bad, too – but those can be fixed. They’re trying to phase out MetroCheks and go only to Smart Benefits. Hopefully, that will eventually simply be a cash account linked to your card – and you can get your Smart Benefits every month, but also have it automatically put more money on from a debit/credit card if your balance gets too low, or something.

    There needs to be an incentive to get more people to use the Smart Trip cards. Requiring them for parking was a good idea, but I’d like to see some fare premium for using one. A discount would be nice. This is especially useful on buses, however – as the cards speed up boarding a ton.

    I also like the idea of charging more for distance, but I’d like to see the system simplified into a more intelligible zone system, rather than the current individual calculation for every possible permutation.

  4. Kiril says:
    July 16, 2008 at 4:12 pm

    Having just moved to DC from Boston, I find the SmartCards very useful and efficient. I load my SmartBenefits every month, and if they aren’t enough, I just add more money to my card. (also note that you do get a meager $.10 discount for using them on the bus).

    Granted I don’t travel long distances, or use the MARC train, but the system sure beats the token system that Boston was using up until a couple years ago (although dropping in pennies, arcade tokens, etc. saved many students a lot of money, it was obviously counter-productive for the MBTA).

    I too wouldn’t mind seeing a simpler zoning system, although as a smartcard user, I don’t have to bother figuring out the exact fare. Some other improvements could be to extend transfers from bus to train (only for smartcard users) and possibly to give discounts to users on any ride after their second of the day (to encourage trips other than commutes).

  5. Kiran says:
    July 16, 2008 at 5:33 pm

    The biggest issue for me is the day pass. I like making a long day in the city some weekends. So I have to buy a flimsy day pass. But its 7+ dollars for a day pass so why bother? Thats 3 max weekend fares plus another ride.

    Letting there be a weekend maximum riding charge (once your smart card has had 7 bucks deducted, you ride free the rest of the day).

    Going to a simpler quarter based sytem. Is it really necessary to make me pay $2.55 to go from Dunn Loring to Ballston?

    Dividing into zones. In virginia we could have: Above ground Orange, North Arlington, Pentagon area, National airport (can probably charge a premium), Alexandria, and South of King St. Does metro really care if I’m going to Ballston or Clarendon?

    So: make smart cards have pass like ability, and simplify the fare structure.

  6. Dave Murphy says:
    July 17, 2008 at 2:29 am

    Distance fare structure aside, wouldn’t it be a major boon for the local economy if we adopted New York’s unlimited structure?

    Furthermore, I think this would get more people out of cars. With cars, we don’t think of each trip as costing us a certain amount of money, we just fill up whenever we need it. If Metro was the same way it could really take cars off the road.

    And by “do it the same way New York does” I mean link it to SmarTrip, or at least make the card something a little more durable if it has to be a separate card. And let’s use it on those new Rapid Bus lines, regular busses, RideOn, and maybe even MARC and VRE.

  7. Michael says:
    July 17, 2008 at 8:39 am

    I heard that passes are going to be integrated with Smartrip soon (late this year or early next year.

    Assuming that variable pricing is an untouchable policy, I would like to see a simplified pass system with “zones”, where you could subscribe to a pass that was good for any trip within the zone, and that the Smartrip card would automatically deduct an additional charge for travel outside of your home zone.

    I would like to see a monthly pass priced at around 40 normal zone trips, and a subscription service where you get 12 passes for the price of 11 if you allow WMATA to automatically charge a credit card, bank account or Smartbenefits account.

    I would also like to see the Rail and bus passes integrated better, with my preference being that a bus pass is worth a $1.25 discount on a rail trip (again, calculated automatically by the Smartrip computers, and that a rail pass works as a bus pass.

    In a dream world, I’d see a retroactive pass program similar to the one in London, which caps your daily transit expenditure at the value of a day pass.

    And in a dream world that could only come about by the use of illegal substances, I’d like to see the same system as London, where if you’re delayed on your trip by more than 15 minutes (30 minutes for bus) and it’s WMATA’s fault, you get the trip free.

    I discussed WMATA’s pass pricing compared to an extensive study of other rail systems and found it to be quite expensive, the most expensive possibly in the world.

  8. Alex B. says:
    July 17, 2008 at 8:58 am

    I think we’d all agree that it’s in the public interest to lower WMATA’s fares and simplify the fare structure, but given the financial realities and the lack of any permanent operations funding, I think that’s a non-starter. If there were a dedicated regional tax (or range of taxes) specifically aimed at operations, I think we could see a fare restructuring.

    The idea of a max daily fare is a great one.

    I’d also consider lowering the fares paid by the longest distance commuters, while increasing the price they pay for parking.

  9. Cavan says:
    July 17, 2008 at 10:08 am

    we must remember that WMATA gets a much higer proportion of its operating revenues from the farebox than the NYC MTA. WMATA tends to get 60-75% whereas The NYC MTA is lucky to get 50%. The NYC MTA doesn’t have to worry about it, though because they have a much more reliable funding stream that WMATA. For example, they arent’t dependent on state legislators from middle of nowhere Virginia who have a vendetta against paying for anything that might benefit their increasingly Democratic-leaning cash cow to the north. The MTA is a part of the Port Authority of NY/NJ, which has had dedicated funding from both states in their compact for years.

    Before we say “let’s be like New York” we have to remember that quite a few political and funding realities are different. I say leave it like it is so that WMATA can continue to get a high proportion of their operating revenue from the farebox (the highest in that nation among transit agencies). Metro ridership is only going to increase, anyway with long term energy cost being what they are. I’m not for high prices. I just think it’s practical for WMATA to have a cushion for when the rednecks from RoVA don’t want to pay up.

  10. Michael says:
    July 17, 2008 at 4:08 pm

    I called WMATA earlier today, and they confirmed that my earlier discussions could be publicized. I wrote up my discussion here.