Markeshia Ricks Photo
Moore at of Orange and Chapel stop.
Dontai Lamar Moore takes the bus from New Haven to get to his job as a Milford mall store manager. He said he might start looking for another way to commute if a planned 25-cent fare hike goes into effect.
“It makes it not worth it to me,” he said while standing at the CT Transit stop at the corner of Orange and Chapel streets. “I’d probably be more likely to share rides.”
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has proposed raising the bus fare from $1.50 to $1.75. He also seeks to increase the amount that Metro-North’s Connecticut commuters and Shore Line East riders pay by about 5 percent.
The reason for the price increase is pure economics, CT Transit administrator Michael Sanders said.
“The short answer is budget issues,” Sanders said. “When the fiscal year ended, the governor and the Office of Policy and Management gave the department a savings plan that required that we save $37 million in expenses.”
Sanders said that meant a combination of solutions for the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT), of which CT Transit is a part, including closing some highway rest areas during certain times and reducing overtime. He said the fare hike for bus and rail would cover about half of the overall reductions. The rail price hike would take effect Dec. 1, the bus hike Dec. 4.
Bus fares pay only 21 – 25 percent of the cost of providing service, according to DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick.
DOT does not plan any reductions in service, Sanders said. And it’s still going to fulfill a tardy promise to help people keep track of late-running buses by installing GPS devices. Sanders said the devices should now start appearing in New Haven-area buses in September, with the job envisioned as being completed by year’s end.
The proposed fare hike is not a done deal. Before it can go into effect, the state has to let the public weigh in. New Haven is slated for two public hearings on Sept. 15 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. The hearings will be in the city Hall of Records at 200 Orange St.
But the fare increase isn’t the only thing that people will get to weigh in on. CT Transit is looking to implement a smart card system, much like the one used in the Washington, D.C. metro area, Sanders said. Instead of paper fare cards, people would have a permanent card that would allow them to forgo always having to carry exact change and ultimately work not only across the CT Transit system, but also could work on Metro North. He said it would also cap fares, meaning that depending on how often a rider uses the card, they would never pay more than what the transit system charges for 3 to 31-day passes. The system would keep track of how the person rides the bus and adjust the fare accordingly. ConnDOT also is conducting a statewide bus study to “evaluate statewide demographics, travel patterns, and bus system performance and coverage,” according to the website.
Mayor Opposes Fare Hike
A bus arriving at Orange and Chapel streets.
Mayor Toni Harp, on her “Mayor Monday” show on WNHH radio, came out in opposition to the proposed fare hike.
“Most of the people who take the bus are low-wage workers,” she said. “It’s tough.”
In addition to covering the budget shortfall, state officials also argue that raising the fare puts the transit system closer to paying for itself. Harp argued that the transit system is a public good and that all transportation users and citizens should share the costs.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was asked about Harp’s position during a press conference at Union Station Thursday. He said that users and the broader society alike should share the cost of bus service — and that currently the state is subsidizing too much of the cost.
What Alternatives?
Kirsh (in the hat) on the D5.
Bus riders interviewed this past week offered varying responses about how the fare increase would affect them.
Bus rider Robert Kirsch was having a smoke Monday and waiting on the D5 Hamden Plaza bus at the Broadway District bus shelter. He said he will probably ride the bus a lot more because at least four days a week he will be a student at Gateway Community College. He said he’s not bothered by the price increase, but he said it would probably be a hardship for the mostly working people who use the bus.
“I understand why the governor has to make cuts,” he said just before hopping on his bus. “He made a lot of promises to a lot of people that he’s trying to keep.”
“There are some things that you do as a state and as a municipal government for the people,” Harp said. “You have the cost basically go across the entire population. And you don’t try to make the people who use the service” pay for it.
“It would impact me financially,” one bus rider said this week as she she said hopped on the G2 East Chapel Street/Lighthouse bus. “But I’d still do it. I’ve got to get to work” at a gym in Orange three days a week and the back home.
Takeya and Brynica on the Q headed downtown.
A woman named Takeya, who didn’t give her last name, was taking the Q bus downtown with her friend Brynica. She said that a 25-cent fare increase means that she would probably alter her habits to take the bus less. She uses it not only to get to school at Gateway Community College on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but also to get most other places. She estimates that she spends between $14 and $18 a week on bus fare.
“I’ll probably walk more,” she said.
“It just means more people are going to drive their cars,” her friend added.
Click here and here for previous coverage of CT Transit’s performance in New Haven.
CT Transit might come closer to its goal of paying for itself if they stopped relying on the model that all commuters work a block or less from The Green and get off work at 5pm. Bus services on ALL lines needs to increase between the hours of 5 and 7 at a minimum. I have known more than one person who tried to commute and found it impossible to reconcile their work schedule with CT Transit's schedule and paid to park in lots and garages. Much higher in price, of course, but more reliable in the long run.
Good mass transit is part of a healthy infrastructure. It probably will never "pay for itself" but it can be improved so ridership increases. Cast in point-the meeting for the rate increase is being held primarily during the hours when most bus service decreases or ends, so those people most directly affected by the rate increase are going to be hard pressed to attend.