SamTrans sets hearing on hiking bus fares SamTrans sets hearing on hiking bus fares (May 25, 2005)

By Marion Softky

Almanac Staff Writer

Faced with a deficit that is $17 million this year and rising, the SamTrans Board of Directors will hold a hearing June 1 to consider raising bus fares 20 to 30 percent while it looks for other ways to stem the flow of red ink.

Adult cash fares would rise from $1.25 to $1.50 for local trips, while trips to San Francisco would jump from $2.50 to $3. For the same trips, youth would see fares rise from 75 cents to $1, and $1.50 to $2, respectively.

If adopted, the new fares would raise about $1.4 million more a year, said Jayme Maltbie Kunz, SamTrans' public information officer.

The fare increase is intended to offset rising costs for fuel and medical insurance, she said.

Since SamTrans' half-cent sales tax was passed 30 years ago to subsidize countywide bus service, the transit agency has taken on paratransit for the frail and disabled, which is very expensive, and become a partner in Caltrain and the extension of BART to San Francisco International Airport, which both face deficits.

"This is not a surprise," said Ms. Kunz.

SamTrans has been drawing down reserves, and is now scrambling for new money. It needs to restructure its debt.

Caltrain is raising fares at the same time it is adding new Baby Bullet trains and closing some stations, including Atherton.

The SamTrans board has made several recommendations to the BART board to reduce losses from disappointing ridership on the new BART extension to the airport. Ridership is up 9.5 percent from last year, Ms. Kunz said, but at 27,800 rides per day it is still well below the projections of more than 40,000.

"There's still a ways to go," she said.

SamTrans is proposing to BART to suspend weekend service to San Bruno and South San Francisco, to pass on a $1 surcharge to passengers, and to eliminate the operating subsidy to BART over the next two years, Ms. Kunz said.

Under the proposal, the subsidy would drop from $10 million to $5 million and then to zero over the two-year period.

The BART board has not responded, Ms. Kunz said.

Meanwhile, the new fares would bring SamTrans bus fares into line with other transit agencies, Ms. Kunz said. "We and the Muni have the lowest rates in the Bay Area."
INFORMATION

The SamTrans board will hold a public hearing on proposed fare increases on Wednesday, June 1, starting at 10 a.m. at 1250 San Carlos Ave. in San Carlos. For information, or to comment on the proposed fare increase, go to samtrans.com; write the SamTrans Board Secretary at 1250 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos, CA 94070; or call 1-800-660-4287.

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