RTD’s Basic Bus Fare Going to $1.10 on July 1 : Critics Howl as Monthly Passes, Including Those for Aged, Disabled, Are Also Slated for Increase

Fares for hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles-area bus riders will increase July 1 as a result of a rate restructuring that squeaked by the RTD board Thursday with the bare minimum number of votes required.

The basic 85-cent cash fare will increase to $1.10, basic monthly passes will go from $32 to $42 and elderly and disabled monthly passes will go from $7 to $10, although most of those riders benefit from special discounts paid by their cities.

The 25-cent boost in the basic cash fare--a nearly 30% increase--and the $3 increase in the senior pass are substantial but necessary, proponents said, because of a large projected deficit in the 1988-89 budget.

Massive Service Area

The district serves a 2,280-square-mile area that includes most of Los Angeles County and has freeway express routes stretching into San Bernardino and Orange counties. District buses log about 450 million passenger boardings a year.

But the increases drew immediate and harsh criticism.

Boosting the price of a pass for seniors on fixed incomes is “taking food out of their mouths,” said Dorothy Cate of the California Congress of Senior Citizens, a coalition of 200 organizations.

“With the service they give they should lower (fares) . . . service is lousy,” said Carlotta Guerrero, a downtown bank clerk who rides the bus daily from Highland Park. “In the morning they don’t stop. You have to wait 45 minutes.”

Some riders viewed the increases as inevitable. “Service is not good . . . it is not consistent,” said Vradha Rajan of Tujunga, who rides the bus to the downtown financial district. “(But) we have to live with these types of increases.”

Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Michael Gage said, “There was a big ‘Ouch!’ here.”

And Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, who is pushing a city-financed proposal to reduce RTD fares, called the action “unconscionable,” and predicted it will increase traffic and smog.

Both Mayor Tom Bradley and Yaroslavsky, likely mayoral rivals who are battling for high ground on the transportation issue, quickly pledged to insulate Los Angeles’ seniors and the disabled from the increases by pushing for a $2-million boost in city subsidies for those monthly passes.

Southern California Rapid Transit District board members, who have rejected a series of managers’ fare increase proposals in a running debate over the last 13 months, also attempted to soften the impact of the hikes on mostly low-income, transit-dependent riders by creating a major new discount ticket book program. The effective cost of a basic ride for those using the discount coupons, which will be available at all RTD ticket outlets, would be 90 cents for regular riders and 45 cents for seniors and the handicapped.

“Basically, for the people who are poor, it’s a nickel increase (with the discount coupons) . . . that’s not unrealistic,” said board member Kenneth Thomas, who for months has opposed a fare hike but on Thursday provided the crucial vote needed to approve the package.

Part of the purpose of the discount coupons is to discourage the use of cash. The $1.3 million in dollar bills that district buses take in every week overload the outdated fare boxes, designed to handle coins. With the fare increase, the dollar bill intake is expected to jump 30% and require installation of two fare boxes on half of the bus fleet at a cost of $1.5 million. New electronic fare boxes capable of handling the dollar bill load are being ordered, but they have been delayed by design problems.

9% Drop Forecast

Bus ridership normally declines when fares are increased. RTD planners on Thursday forecast about a 9% drop in the district’s 1.4 million boardings a day. Gary Spivack, director of planning, said the loss will come from a mix of reduced trips by the poor, who have no cars, and other commuters abandoning the buses for cars.

RTD’s managers and several board members have been arguing since early last year that a fare increase is needed to offset rising operating costs, reductions in state and federal aid and to pay for repair of the aging and problem-prone bus fleet. They note the last fare increase was in 1985 and have warned that major cutbacks in bus service would be required in the coming fiscal year if fare-box income does not grow.

View of Critics

But outside critics and some other board members, citing embarrassing disclosures of alleged waste and mismanagement at the RTD in recent years, have argued that the district must streamline its operations and better control the more than $800 million a year it already spends.

Thursday’s vote appears to signal a renewal of the board’s confidence in its staff. The huge agency took a public beating in the final years of former General Manager John Dyer’s administration. Dyer, who became the object of much of the criticism, resigned early this year.

Warm to Replacement

But some board members, who had grown distrustful of their staff and what they viewed as the salesman-like Dyer’s manipulations, have warmed to his interim replacement, acting General Manager Alan Pegg. A low-key, by-the-numbers administrator, Pegg has quietly begun to tackle some of the agency’s many bus service and management problems, board members say.

“Alan Pegg has done a good job in trying to reorganize the district,” said board member Carmen Estrada, a Dyer critic who has been most critical of district management and led the resistance to fare increases. Because of the large increase in the base cash fare, Estrada, a Bradley appointee, voted against Thursday’s fare hike. But she said she would have supported a $1 base fare, believing that some fare increases were needed.

The vote for the fare increase was 8 to 2. Supporting the hikes were President Jan Hall, a Long Beach councilwoman; Marv Holen, an appointee of Supervisor Ed Edelman; Thomas, an appointee of Supervisor Kenneth Hahn; Erwin Jones, an appointee of Supervisor Pete Schabarum; Bradley appointee Joseph Dunning; Bell Councilman Jay Price; Rolling Hills Councilwoman Gordana Swanson, and Glendale Councilman John Day.

Voting no were Estrada and La Puente Councilman Charles Storing.

NEW RTD FARES Here is the new RTD fare schedule, which will take effect July 1, compared to the existing fares.

EXISTING NEW CASH: Base fare .85 $1.10 Express surcharge .35 per zone .40 per zone Transfers .10 .25 Elderly and disabled .40 .55 Elderly and disabled express surcharge None .20 per zone Elderly and disabled transfers .10 .10 TICKET BOOKS: 10 tickets for 20 tickets for $9; $8.50; 1 ticket 2 tickets per ride per ride (equals (equals 90 cents); 85 cents) 1 ticket per ride for elderly and disabled (equals 45 cents) MONTHLY PASSES: Regular $32 $42 Express stamps $12 each $12 each Elderly and disabled* $7 $10 Elementary and high school students $12 $18 College/vocational students $15 $25

* Most elderly and disabled monthly pass users now actually pay only $4 because most cities in the county provide a special subsidy to the RTD for their residents. Assuming those subsidies remain the same, the new elderly and disabled monthly pass for residents of participating cities would be $8.