Bus Fare Hike OKd, but Token Cost Unchanged

Los Angeles bus fares will go up to $1.35 on Sept. 1--the first increase in six years--and general monthly passes will no longer be available, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decided Wednesday.

To temper the 23% increase, up from the current fare of $1.10, the authority’s board of directors voted to keep the price of a discount token at 90 cents rather than raise it to a dollar, as originally proposed by MTA Chief Executive Officer Franklin E. White.

The changes squeaked by with the two-thirds majority required from the 13-member body. After the 9-3 vote, Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who introduced the compromise, called it an acceptable “middle ground” position that would help rescue the cash-strapped MTA from bankruptcy, yet recognize the plight of the system’s poorest riders.

“This is the best we could do,” she said.

Fares in Los Angeles have been among the lowest of major metropolitan areas, and the increase will make them comparable to those in other large cities, MTA research has shown.

But community activists opposed to fare increases immediately lambasted the plan, accusing the MTA of pursuing costly rail projects while slighting a bus network that serves 15 times as many people.

“They’ve spent all their money on these incredibly ill-advised rail projects, and now they’re coming after the bus constituency to finance the rail,” said Chris Niles of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, a Mid-Wilshire-based watchdog group. Niles described bus riders as needy people who “make $11,000 (or) $12,000 a year.”

Niles said eliminating the $42 general monthly pass will pose a severe hardship to the county’s most disadvantaged residents, many of whom rely completely on public transit. Students, the elderly and the disabled will still be eligible for monthly passes.

Norma Lazaro, who has depended on buses for 17 years to shuttle her from her home in Atwater Village to her clerk job seven miles away in Downtown Los Angeles, said the increase could be difficult for her.

“Maybe I can request somebody to bring me to work,” Lazaro said. “I’ll have to budget.”

Critics also denounced new reductions in bus service, approved separately Wednesday, that they believe will maroon hundreds of passengers, even though the affected lines are less heavily used.

MTA officials insist that a combination of fare increases and service cuts is imperative to help pluck the agency out of a sea of red ink. Just a year after its creation through the merger of the Los Angeles County Transportation Commission and the Southern California Rapid Transit District, the agency faces an operating deficit of $126 million and a capital shortfall of $170 million.

Although the MTA expects the new fare and service cutbacks to frighten away about 6% of its 1.1 million daily bus riders, it estimates that the higher fares will rake in an extra $31.2 million.

That amount falls $8.8 million short of what planners had hoped to gain from increasing token charges by a dime apiece. With the passage of the compromise proposal, staff members must now find ways to trim more money from the agency’s proposed $2.9-billion budget, final approval of which has been postponed for a week.

The MTA already has undergone two series of layoffs and job reductions over the past year, and has instituted a hiring freeze. Some projects, such as the Blue Line light rail extension to Pasadena, have been cut back.

The agency also is embroiled in a bruising round of negotiations with its three biggest unions, including its bus and train operators, who have set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. Monday if no agreement is reached on their demand for a 3% raise and a cost-of-living increase. The MTA’s drivers, mechanics and clerks--about 6,500 employees out of its 9,100-person work force--have been without a contract since July 1.

But it was the plan to raise bus fares and slash service that generated the most controversy since planners introduced the concepts several months ago. At the time, officials talked about the possibility of pushing the cost of a ride up to $1.50, even though they acknowledged that 62% of bus passengers come from households with incomes of $15,000 or less.

Although the agency subsequently scaled down the fare to $1.35, the proposal remained a politically loaded issue.. In fact, Molina’s amendment was narrowly defeated on its first try, and it wasn’t until outgoing board member Evan Braude reversed his vote that the alternative was passed.

Braude, a Long Beach city councilman whose term expires Monday, said he switched sides because his replacement on the board supported Molina’s plan, guaranteeing its approval if the board had postponed action by a week, as had been suggested.

“We have a labor contract coming up,” he said. “I wanted to get this done before that.”

Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan said he supported the compromise because the 90-cent tokens would allow poor riders to save on the $1.35 full fare and could entice others to use the system because of publicity about the token discount.

But critics of the plan doubt that enough riders will switch over from cash to tokens.

Currently, only about 6% of passengers opt for the tokens. For Molina’s plan to work without draining more money from the agency, she hopes that about a third of the riders will take advantage of the cheaper tokens.

At 90 cents a token, 21 round trips a month--about the number of working days--would cost $37.80, which Molina called an affordable option for the working poor. However, observers note, this does not involve transfers, which will continue to cost 25 cents and which many riders need to get from home to work.

Other elements included in the plan adopted Wednesday:

* Monthly passes for college and vocational school students will be $30, up from $25.

* Passes for schoolchildren will be $20, up from $18, but will be good on weekends for the first time.

* Passes for senior citizens and the disabled, including blind passengers, who previously traveled for free, will be $12, up from $10.

* Zone surcharges will apply on express bus lines and the Blue Line trolley--50 cents per zone. An end-to-end ride on the Blue Line, from Long Beach to Los Angeles, will end up costing $2.35, more than double the current $1.10 fare.

Two local service bus lines were canceled as part of the package of service reductions: lines 208 (Beachwood shuttle) and 152 (Burbank shuttle). Service also will be scaled back on Lines 94, 104, 225 and 320.

The frequency of three peak-hour express routes (Lines 443 and 445 from the South Bay to Union Station and Line 457 between Los Angeles and Long Beach) also were cut back on a four-month trial basis. Officials expect the combined cutbacks to save up to $20 million.

Past Hikes

Bus fares will rise to $1.35 for a one-way trip, the first increase in six years. 1980: 85 cents 1982*: 50 cents 1985: 85 cents 1988: $1.10 1994: $1.35 * Price dropped because some sales tax money provided partial transit funding for three years.

Source: Metropolitan Transportation Authority