MTA Reduces Fares for Riders at Night

See the city from an MTA bus at a discount fare. But bring your flashlight.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board approved a 75-cent bus fare Thursday--down from the usual $1.35--good only between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. The discount fare will become effective Sept. 6.

To some, a discount fare at night--coming at the same time the agency is considering cuts in late-night bus service--is as confounding as MTA’s building a rail line to El Segundo but not to the airport.

“On the one hand, they’re saying, ‘Look at this discount,’ ” said Chris Mathis, an activist with the Bus Riders Union. “On the other hand, try to find a bus to get the discount.”

MTA officials said they were required to establish an off-peak discount by a court order mandating bus improvements and they chose the nighttime hours to give a price break to those who are transit dependent.

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Transit dependents who won a court order saw an off-peak discount fare as a way to reduce crowding on lines that now pass up riders at bus stops during rush hour. The thinking was that an off-peak discount would spur riders to take some trips during off-peak hours.

“Most people aren’t going grocery shopping at 9 p.m.” said Constance L. Rice, western regional counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and lead attorney in the civil rights lawsuit that led to the consent decree.

“There is no logic to their policy,” said Eric Mann, also of the Bus Riders Union.

Bus rider advocates have pushed for discounts especially during the middle of the day and weekends.

Rice said the nighttime discount is “certainly not within the spirit of the decree.” The decree requires a 75-cent off-peak period on lines, “as determined by the MTA.”

Rice contended that the MTA is “out of compliance with the decree from top to bottom” since it was signed almost a year ago. She has vowed to bring up the issue with the court-appointed “special master.”

“In the first year of this decree, we’ve seen a deterioration in service,” Rice said.

Ellen Levine, MTA executive officer for operations, said, “Yes, I think her observation [about service] unfortunately is probably true.”

Levine lay much of the blame on breakdowns in the 330 ethanol-powered buses, a third of which are out of service on a typical day. She said the agency is working to correct the problems. Levine, however, asserted that the agency is in compliance with the consent decree.

Some have suggested that a reduced fare also would increase ridership, which has dropped from a high of 1.7 million boardings a day when the fare was rolled back to 50 cents in the mid-1980s to about 1 million today.

But MTA officials said they tested a 75-cent fare during midday on one of their busiest bus line and found “no measurable change” in ridership. Critics say the agency did a poor job of publicizing the discount.

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Only about 4% of the 1 million boardings a day occur between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., and of those, less than half pay cash. The bulk of riders use monthly passes.

Some bus rider advocates have pushed for a discount fare during all off-peak periods, but MTA officials said that would cost about $22 million annually in lost revenues.

A 35-cent fare for the elderly and disabled also will go into effect between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m. Sept. 6. The MTA board also voted to continue to offer the 75-cent fare between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on Line 40/42.

In other developments:

* Julian Burke, a turnaround specialist appointed last Friday as MTA’s acting chief, pledged to the board that he will devote himself to reconstructing the agency’s operating and capital budgets.

A budget task force ordered by the MTA chairman, Mayor Richard Riordan, which included Burke, found the agency is running a deficit of at least $29 million and perhaps double that amount if more realistic revenue and spending assumptions are used.

Appointed after Riordan’s latest choice to run the county transit agency turned down the job, Burke acknowledged that: “I am on a honeymoon of some sort.”

When he expressed the hope that it lasts, a member of the audience shouted: “Don’t count on it!”

* State Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Los Angeles) stepped up his push for legislation before the Sept. 12 end of the session authorizing the governor to appoint a state trustee to take over MTA operations.

“It would be unwise to expect that a divided MTA board, and a new administrator dragged out of semi-retirement, will accomplish a turnaround on their own,” said Hayden’s letter to the Assembly and Senate Transportation Committee chiefs.

* The board imposed a 60-day moratorium on new contracts for subway extensions to the Eastside and Mid-City, and a light rail line to Pasadena, after it became apparent the two-month delay would have little impact on the projects.

Times staff writer Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.