Back to Drawing Board for the MTA : Court blocks fare increases the agency needs

When U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. temporarily blocked a fare increase by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority last week, he did more than create bureaucratic headaches for the agency that runs most of the region’s buses and trolleys. He also created political pain for the elected officials who set regional mass transit policies and long-range plans.

Elected officials on the 13-member MTA board, including Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and the five members of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, must now reassess how the agency is to pay for new transit systems while keeping the current bus system running.

That task won’t be easy as long as difficult economic times continue. The persistent recession is the main reason both MTA fare box revenues and local sales tax receipts--money that pays for transit improvements--are way down. This one-two punch left the MTA with a $126-million deficit. It was to help make up that deficit that the MTA board approved a series of fare increases intended to take effect this week.

Hatter’s action against those increases came in the form of a temporary restraining order. The unexpected action was in response to a lawsuit filed by attorneys who argued the fare increases are discriminatory under federal civil rights laws. The lawsuit contends that because the MTA is spending more to build subways and trolleys--allegedly to serve well-to-do riders from the suburbs--than on bus operations, it is discriminating against poor and minority residents of the inner city who are dependent on buses.

The argument is innovative, and certainly worth hearing out in open court. But it may not stand up under scrutiny. Many poor and minority transit users travel to and from the suburbs. Many also use the MTA’s trolleys and subways. And the 25-cent hike in bus fares was matched by substantial fare increases for trolley riders and suburban bus riders as well.

If Hatter makes his order permanent after court hearings next week, he will set a precedent that could affect public transportation agencies throughout the nation. The MTA would almost surely appeal the ruling to higher courts.

While controversial and no doubt painful to most mass transit riders, the MTA’s fare increases were necessary on economic terms. MTA fares have lagged behind those charged by transit agencies in other big cities. It took the recession to force the MTA board to finally increase them, just as it forced the MTA to revise the generous contracts it had negotiated with its labor unions during flush times.

Last month the agency had to endure a bus strike to win concessions from the unions. Unfortunately, it may now take a prolonged legal battle to force reluctant transit users to share the pain.