MTA Lowers Bus Fare on Some Routes

Theo Fisher--like many other bus riders Monday--didn’t know what day it was.

Fisher was surprised to discover his bus trip to the unemployment office would cost only 75 cents as the lower fares mandated by a settlement between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Bus Riders Union kicked in Monday.

“You’re kidding me--that’s wonderful!” exclaimed Fisher, 36, as he waited for the MTA Line 40 bus at Broadway and 5th Street. Fisher rides the bus every day looking for a job. “That’s a great thing for people like me who don’t have a lot of money. Now I can get to twice as many places with the extra money.”

After a two-year legal battle, Los Angeles bus riders began paying cheaper bus fares Monday--a key element in the settlement of a civil rights lawsuit accusing the agency of spending money developing rail systems in affluent communities at the expense of poor and minority bus riders. The MTA agreed to reduce fares and add buses in the Oct. 28 consent decree.

Passengers on Lines 40 and 42 now pay 75-cent off-peak fares, down from $1.35. The special fares are available weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. In addition, new $11 weekly passes went on sale Sunday and the MTA reduced the $49 monthly pass to $42 when it went on sale Nov. 25. MTA officials estimated that ridership will increase about 1% as a result.

Bus rider advocates heralded the lower prices as the first step in improving services for urban bus patrons.

“This is just the beginning [of] what it’s going to take for a first-class bus system,” said Eric Mann, director of the Labor / Community Strategy Center, whose group was a plaintiff in the suit. “The government has been trying to tell poor people that the cost of everything has to go up. . . . [This] has shown the principle that government can lower the cost of services.”

In the last two weeks, the MTA promoted the new fares with radio spots, print ads and brochures and bus-rider union members papered buses with 50,000 fliers announcing the lower prices. But many passengers waiting to ride the bus downtown Monday afternoon still didn’t know about the cheaper fares.

For those who did, the new fares that union members called historic meant only one thing--more money for them.

Marina Ruiz, a 22-year-old housekeeper who lives downtown, bought the lower-cost monthly pass as soon as it came out. “I’ve been sick and the difference I save with the pass will help me pay for medicine,” Ruiz said in Spanish. She rides six buses every day to and from her job in San Pedro. “And now when I see people on the street who are hungry, I can afford to give them something.”

Hector Hincapie read about the new $11 weekly pass during the weekend with relief.

“I love the idea. Sometimes I don’t have the money to buy a $49 monthly pass,” said 50-year-old Hincapie, a private security guard who takes the bus downtown every day from his home in South-Central Los Angeles. “The money I save is going to be placed straight into my baby’s savings account, for college or something.”

Officials said the lines chosen for the off-peak fares are busy routes with the highest concentration of bus-dependent riders. Other lines will be selected in January to adopt the new fare by March 1.

The cheaper passes will cost the MTA about $3 million by the end of the fiscal year in June, and about $5 million annually. Officials said other services will not be cut to cover the expense of the lower fares.

“We have a commitment to do this and actually increase services substantially over the next six years,” said Dana Woodbury, deputy executive officer for operations, planning and scheduling.

Although advocates for the bus riders were pleased with the reduced fares Monday, Mann said eventually his group wants to see a $20 monthly rate and even more buses than promised in the October settlement. An additional 53 buses will hit the streets during December and 51 more next June. “Very frankly, given the tremendous overcrowding on the buses, these fares are still too high,” Mann said. “People deserve a seat.”

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New Fares

Here are the new MTA bus fares:

* A 75-cent off-peak fare went into effect Monday on Lines 40 and 42 for weekdays between 10 a.m and 2 p.m. MTA officials will decide in January which other lines will adopt the new fare in March.

* An $11 weekly pass went into effect Sunday, as did two other reduced passes. The monthly pass now costs $42, down from $49. The two-week pass was reduced from $26.50 to $21.