$1.10 Fare Stays but MTA Pass Hike OKd : Transportation: Critics say increasing cost of monthly pass from $42 to $60 will hurt poor riders most.

A federal judge Tuesday kept the bus fare for cash-paying riders the same but gave the Metropolitan Transportation Authority permission to raise the price for a monthly pass to $60--which critics said would limit the travel of the transit-dependent poor.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. refused to lift the court order he issued in September blocking the fare increase, from $1.10 to $1.35, expressing dissatisfaction with the MTA’s efforts to make available 90-cent tokens, which can be used in lieu of paying the higher fare.

But Hatter gave the transit agency the go-ahead to raise the price for a monthly pass from $42 to $60. The pass is popular because it allows unlimited rides and saves passengers from fumbling for change.

But critics said the ruling would force the transit-dependent poor, who make as many as 80 trips a month on the bus, to cut back on travel because they cannot afford the higher-priced pass.

“The $42 pass is the lifeline to mass transit for the urban poor,” said Eric Mann, director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit accusing the MTA of discriminating against minority and poor riders.

“When you raise it to $60, you drive people onto the cash fare. When they run out of money, they stop using mass transit. They don’t go to church. They don’t seek medical care. They don’t have a life.”

Although the MTA board has authorized the $60 monthly pass, a spokesman for the transit agency said that no final decision has been made on when--or if--it will be put into effect.

Transit officials have contended that the truly disadvantaged cannot afford the $42 price and ended up subsidizing those who could.

But Curtis Wical, a 32-year-old unemployed Hollywood man who attended Tuesday’s court hearing, said later that he relies on the $42 pass to get around. “I don’t know where the (additional) money will come from,” he said.

A trial will proceed on the lawsuit accusing the nation’s second-largest transit agency of discriminating against minority and poor bus riders by pursuing costly rail projects that largely benefit affluent white commuters.

Both sides expressed disappointment with Tuesday’s ruling. MTA attorneys hoping for the fare hike are considering an appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Hatter last fall indicated that he would allow the first bus fare increase in six years to proceed if the transit agency showed that the 90-cent tokens were widely available.

But MTA lawyers could not answer the judge’s question on whether tokens can be purchased after 6 p.m. The transit agency says tokens are available at more than 400 sales outlets.

But plaintiffs’ attorney Constance L. Rice of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund argued that most bus riders must travel at least a mile to reach a token sales outlet.

After the hearing, MTA counsel David Kelsey said the agency would make it a priority to increase the number and hours of operation of token sales outlets. The parties are scheduled for a pretrial conference on April 17, but the MTA could return to court before then seeking again to lift the court order blocking the fare increase.

The fare increase was authorized by the MTA board in July after a series of raucous public hearings, including one so fierce that transit police in riot gear were summoned. Transit officials said the increase--which was scheduled to become effective last Sept. 1, would give the agency $40 million a year needed to balance its books.

Tuesday’s hearing offered a preview of the trial.

Rice evoked the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who said public transportation was a civil rights issue. “This is a separate, but unequal system,” she said.

Kenneth Klein, a private attorney hired by the MTA, contended that the transit agency’s decision to invest heavily in rail construction was a “policy decision” by elected officials. The court case could lead to increased spending for the bus system.

In addition to failing again to raise the bus fare, the MTA received more bad news Tuesday: Its budget deficit has ballooned to $56 million.

The shortfall is partly because of the delayed fare increase, a loss of more than 5% of its ridership after last year’s bus strike and a drop in corporate purchases of bus passes. The MTA is looking at ways to close the budget gap, including layoffs and cuts in bus service.