Fares

[trainman8119]

Well....it is starting. In todays Sun-Times (fare cards) Pace is crying lost revenue in accepting the CTA 7 day pass.

This is all a stitch. In a time when all are crying for a standard fare structure among all the service boards (which I believe is a bad idea and should never happen), the CTA has started the house of cards falling with their goofy fare structure aimed at selling more Chicago Cards.

The best part of this is that the RTA doesn't see a problem. I guess that sums it all up. One of these days, all will see that Pace needs the CTA to survive.

[Busjack]

I don't understand much of this, but it seems clear to me that the RTA isn't doing its job. The state legislature mandated a universal fare card years ago, but all the RTA did was have consultants saying that there would be problems implementing it on Metra (if I remember correctly, the consultants said one possibility was an electronic armband to replace putting your ticket in the clip).

One view is that CTA shouldn't be keeping all the revenue from the passes and expect Pace to give free rides. On the other hand, there apparently wasn't any agreement for sharing transfer revenue, either, allowing CTA to quit honoring Pace transfers. But maybe RTA is correct that all of this comes out of the taxpayer's pocket, anyway, and maybe it nets out. This may be equivalent to the City saying today that its cigarette tax revenue is down because the County doubled its cigarette tax, but the real estate transfer tax is up, so what's the difference?

As far as Pace being dependent on CTA, maybe we should go back to when buses ran between downtown and Thornton via 142nd, River Oaks, Leyden, Roseland-Altgeld, Hillside, etc., charge the $3.00 fare like on 355 and 835, and not force the riders to transfer to CTA. Wouldn't help congestion or integration of the network, but maybe both CTA and the suburban riders would prefer that. (RTA hasn't done anything to prevent competition between CTA and Pace, either, in areas such as Roseland and Evanston, and soon on Harlem Ave.). For my part, I am starting to prefer using Metra than using Pace to transfer to the L, given that both the Pace and CTA rides are much slower than they once were, and I am becoming tired of beggers camped out in front of the fare machines, or selling stuff on L trains to the captive audience.

I also think that Pace could have raised its fares in tandem with CTA and Metra doesn't do a thorough job of collecting fares (at least for riders staying within the suburbs), both of which would alleviate some of the revenue problems.

There is the same thing with regard to paratransit fares. According to "Moving into the Future," instead of Pace intending to charge city riders the $3 fare its charges suburban ones, the RTA has apparently turned the matter over to consultants, and the fare stays at $1.75 pending their report. (I remember your prior comment about the bleeping consultants, and it applies here.)

Maybe the correct thing would be to blow it all up and have a unified system, but the politicians here will never let it happen. The Mayor won't relinquish control over the CTA Board, even though the Board has made a mess of the pension fund, as just one example. While New York has the NYCTA, MTA Bus, and Long Island Bus (and maybe still the MBSTOA), my understanding is that is all run by the MTA, and the MTA intends to consolidate them.

[trainman8119]

I also think that Pace could have raised its fares in tandem with CTA and Metra doesn't do a thorough job of collecting fares (at least for riders staying within the suburbs), both of which would alleviate some of the revenue problems.

I am surprised that Pace didn't raise there fares, and that is my point. When the CTA changed their fare structure, Pace did not, and now they are crying foul, and I said it was a matter of time before Pace did, in fact raise fares, claiming lost CTA revenue. That hasn't happened...yet...but I suspect it is right around the corner.

As for Metra not collecting shorts...not true. It is done, and when it is not, we hear about it. There are times, but not often. I have a bigger beef with that silly $2 fare they had for the march the other day as well as the weekend ticket...sticking it to the regular riders who constantly pay more with monthly and 10-ride tickets. Had Metra collected regular fares for these "special events" and charged $5 for a Saturday, and $5 for a Sunday ticket (separate), there would have not been a need for a 5% (or whatever it actually was) fare increase in February. Metra loses, for example, $7 for every Fox Lake-Chicago (regular $6 one way) or $5 for every Elgin-Chicago (regular $5.15) round trip on a weekend...that adds up !!!!!!!

[Busjack]

All I can speak of is personal experience, but when I worked on Lake Cook Road (that ended about 3 years ago) and my car was in the shop, sometimes I would ride between suburban stations. I always bought a ticket first (if the station was open) to avoid the surcharge. No one checked me going northbound. It seemed like going southbound from Lake Cook, if I was just riding to Northbrook, the conductor would inspect the ticket right away. However, if I was riding downtown, the inspection usually was around Morton Grove, meaning that if I were riding between Lake Cook to Northbrook, Glenview, or Golf it would have been free. I guess I had the bad luck of the draw going southbound. It seems like the conductors don't do as thorough a job in the reverse rush direction. I also noticed that both the conductors and station agent had sort of an incredulous expression when I said that I was just going to Deerfield or Northbrook.

As far as the weekend tickets, I doubt that there is much revenue loss, because the trains are filled with kids. It probably is easier to just sell the $5 tickets, and I doubt that most of the people using family fares are going downtown both days.