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For the first time ever in Hampton Roads Transit's history, the fare will be increasing in order to raise revenues and to be able to make more capital purchases, such as buying new buses and improving passenger amenities. It is projected to add up to $3.2 million in revenue.
The road to a fare increase is not easy for any transit agency anywhere. For some agencies it happens every few years or so. For us, it was a long time coming and unless if you're me that it should have happened already earlier, you probably knew it was coming.
Let's go back to the beginning, October 1, 1999. HRT was newly formed after the merger of Tidewater Regional Transit (TRT) and Peninsula Transit (Pentran) which is still the largest voluntary merger of transit agencies in the nation to date. The fares are $1.50 in the southside (the TRT portion) and $1.25 in the Pentran district. In the early 2000's, fares were made even with $1.50. If passengers need to transfer buses, they could do so for free after they paid for their fare and asking the driver. The transfer ticket lasts for two hours and it could only be used at Transfer stations, not individual stops.
In October 6, 2008, transfers were done away for the day passes, aka the "GO Pass." A few old passes, such as the 10 ride pass or the youth 20 ride pass were cut. The one way price was still $1.50, but the day pass is $3.50. Earlier in Summer 2008, the MAX express service started running and actually the MAX was the first service to introduce passes. One way fare is $3.00 and the passes cost $5.50, which could be used on anything HRT. Passengers who are using the regular day pass can ride the MAX with their pass, but must pay up an extra regular fare to ride. IMO this sucks because for unexplained reasons, regular buses does not sell the MAX pass to people who get on a regular bus in case they need to go on a MAX bus (How this problem can be solved will be later in this blog).
Early talks for a fare change happened in 2010. In that June, announcements were made on HRT's website regarding fare changes and a couple public meetings were addressed. However, the CEO at the time Philip Shucet (just months in the helm) decided that there are some HRT routes that are "not efficient" and a study with a course of action took place for the next year. There was no fare change but almost 40 bus routes had either lost trips, longer frequency (example, a route running every 30 minutes became 60 minutes, etc), and even fully eliminating routes. This affected a lot of passengers and even at my bus routes at home in Portsmouth, but this is for another blog post in the future.
In 2011, the GO365 Pass was initiated and it is based on schools and businesses wanting the students/workers have a pass that can be used on any HRT service, including MAX routes. The program was heavily discounted and even though ridership peaked through the roof, the agency actually lost almost $2 million. In 2012, with a revised structure in place, HRT created a fare structure review by the APTA and had many recommendations, including doing away with the GO365 pass and having premium fares on the ferry and the Tide light rail.
In fall of 2013, HRT released a proposed fare structure which showed the projected fares and percentage increases. There were numerous public meetings in the first 6 weeks into 2014, in which I spoke twice. Over 100 people spoke and many people said that increasing fares by $.50 is too much at one time, especially for people working minimum wage or low income. Also, the 5-pass bundle deal which was proposed to be cut, was saved by passengers speaking up.
In the February 2014 HRT board meeting, the board voted to move forward with the fare increase by phases. The first fare change is for October 2014 for $1.75/$4 and in 2016, it will be raised again to $2/$4.50 (one way/day pass). Initially, the fare change would have started that July. However, HRT wanted to make sure that all improvements with the fareboxes and training from bus operators are up to par. Also, paper schedules were redesigned with a new look and color palette with the new fare changes.
(The new route brochures but WHY ORANGE!! HRT's colors are green, sky blue and navy blue)
Another hot topic is the increase of senior fare age to 65. Most transit agencies have their senior age set at 65. Before the change, the age was 60. Affected people can be grandfathered into the eligibility by going into HRT's headquarters.
The passes that will no longer be accepted starting October 5, 2014 are the 2-way passes and the Tide roundtrip pass.
With fare change already happening, observations from me are already taking place. This part of the blog will change/updated over time.
Now remember earlier in the blog about the horrible execution on how people are paying the MAX bus by a regular day pass. If there is a chance, if it goes my way, the day pass will not be $4.50, but $5. Why $5? I want the $5 pass to INCLUDE MAX SERVICE so it will be an all-agency pass. No more having to pay extra with a regular pass and save a lot of confusion. My idea comes from the Cleveland RTA, which has bus, express bus, heavy rail & one of the most successful Bus Rapid Transit lines in the nation, has its all day pass for all services for $5, so we should do that in Hampton Roads Transit. By the way, the MAX pass in the current fare structure will increase from $5.50 to $6.50 in the 2014 change and if my idea does not go through, it will cost a staggering $7.50 in 2016. Also in the 2013 proposal, the MAX pass would have been $8.25.
We will see how it pans out. watch this blog or keep up with gohrt.com for updates on other changes or to comment about the fare changes.
WORKS CITED/LINKS:
gohrt.com (Fare Change FAQ's)
gohrt.com (Fare Policy)
gohrt.com (Fare Structure 2014 & 2016)
gohrt.com (February 2014 Board meeting package, with fare structure)
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