RTD directors voted Tuesday night to amend a fare-increase proposal to more equally balance the hike’s burden on all customers, whether they pay cash or buy pre- paid monthly or yearly passes.
Regional Transportation District staffers had proposed a fare increase to deal with rising fuel prices and other financial pressures that called for boosting the regular local cash fare to $2, the express cash fare to $3.50 and the regional fare to $4.50 a trip.
That proposal called for increasing prices of transit passes reflecting a traditional discount that rewards customers for pre-paying.
On Tuesday, RTD director Chris Martinez supplied data showing that under the proposal, cash customers would pay about 5 cents more per trip than pass holders. To close that gap, Martinez offered an amendment that boosted the proposed new cost of regular monthly passes by $2 in each fare category — to $70 a month for a local pass, to $128 for an express pass and $164 for a regional pass.
The board approved taking the comprehensive fare-increase proposal out for public hearings with Martinez’s amendment included.
Before they did, board members defeated another amendment, offered by director John Tayer, that would have removed some changes to the Eco Pass and Neighborhood Pass programs.
The proposal includes a 19 percent rise in per-employee Eco Pass and Neighborhood Pass rates as well as provisions that would tack on a $5 skyRide fee for these pass holders.
The fare proposal also would require 50 employees as the minimum for employers participating in Eco Pass, and it proposed a moratorium on new or expanded Neighborhood Pass contracts.
Tayer’s amendment tried to eliminate the 50-employee minimum, the $5 skyRide surcharge and the Neighborhood Pass freeze, but it was soundly defeated.
Under the pass programs, employers enroll employees, or community associations sign up blocks of neighbors, to get deeply discounted transit passes that give users access to all of RTD’s service — local, express, regional and skyRide service to Denver International Airport.
RTD will hold 15 public hearings on the fare-hike plan in coming weeks. Directors are expected to approve a final package of increases by October. If approved, the hikes would go into effect in January.
At Tuesday’s meeting, directors also approved a plan to introduce parking fees at certain RTD park-n- Ride lots starting in February.
Jeffrey Leib: 303-954-1645 or jleib@denverpost.com
