The Regional Transportation District is reviewing its pricing system in quest of more uniform fares for its light-rail passengers. That’s a worthwhile goal, but the agency needs to ensure that it doesn’t undercut its core mission by pricing service so high that it ends up putting more riders back onto the region’s congested highways.
RTD has long used what amounts to a zone system for its bus fares, with four zones in the Denver region and two in the Boulder area. A local fare, good for travel in up to two zones, costs $1.25. An express bus ticket, for up to three zones, costs $2.75 while a regional fare, up to four zones, is $3.75. Monthly bus passes for those services cost $45, $99 and $135 respectively.
In contrast, RTD has used just two fares for its light-rail service, charging $1.25 for local riders and $2.75 for passengers who pass an arbitrary “fare boundary” at Hampden Avenue. Given that RTD now operates just one commuter-length rail line, that system has the virtue of simplicity. But it also creates an anomaly where a rider going from Five Points to Englewood pays less than half the fare of a commuter taking the much shorter ride from Englewood to Littleton.
Such anomalies would grow when the T-REX rail line now being built down I-25 to Lincoln Avenue opens in 2006. And when the far-flung $4.7 billion FasTracks project opens over the next 12 years, the current system would clearly be unworkable.
We can support a new zone system that more accurately reflects the cost of service. But it’s important to implement the system in a revenue-neutral fashion and not use zones for a disguised fare increase.
True, RTD will have to increase fares at some point, because state law requires the agency to recoup 30 percent of its operating costs from fares, which were last raised in 2004. But RTD should strive to keep operating costs in line to ensure it doesn’t drive riders away. That’s hard to do at the moment because RTD’s fuel costs are rising just as they are for private motorists. But that’s also why we commend Gov. Bill Owens for his May 4 veto of Senate Bill 61 that would have allowed RTD to lower the service it provides through private contractors to 35 percent of total bus service, down from the current 50 percent.
An RTD analysis showed such a reduction in private service could have cost RTD an extra $143.5 million over the next 12 years – just to maintain existing levels of service. Avoiding such unnecessary cost increases helps riders while buttressing RTD’s role in enhancing the region’s quality of life.
