Temporary fare cut back on agenda for Aug. 12 Board of Directors meeting
A proposed temporary fare cut is back on the agenda for the August 12 BART Board of Directors meeting, after the Board postponed a decision on the proposal during its July 22 meeting.
If the Board approves the temporary fare rollback, BART customers would see a 3% reduction in fares for four months. That means the average rider would save approximately $3.96 per month. The reduction could begin as early as October, but the exact date isn't yet finalized. The temporary fare cut would cost the agency $2.3 million.
BART has projected $4.5 million in extra available funding for Fiscal Year 2011, due in large part to the agency's careful efforts to manage expenses over the past couple of years by cutting costs to match declining revenues as a result of the bad economy. Additionally, the surplus is partly the result of a court order that required the state of California to return money it had previously redirected from BART's budget in order to solve its own budgetary problems.
At its July 22 meeting, the Board approved using part of the extra available funding on the following items:
- $1 million for BART’s rainy-day reserves, bringing total reserves to $25 million
- $750,000 for replacement of seats and deep-cleaning of 50 rail cars
- $200,000 to defer an increase in East Bay paratransit fares for 4 months
- $150,000 for emergency operations and BART Police facilities
- $100,000 to improve station agent customer service
- $75,000 for real-time information monitors to be installed at locations near BART stations
- $62,000 to convert four part-time utility workers to full-time
BART conducted public participation activities around the temporary fare cut proposal, with many of those who participated in the process suggesting alternative uses for the funds instead of a temporary fare cut. The public participation process resulted in the following documents being produced:
Proposed Temporary Fare Reduction Options Public Participation Summary Report (1109k .pdf)
Title VI Assessment of Proposed Temporary Fare Reduction Options (362k .pdf)
Executive Summary of the Title VI Assessment of Proposed Temporary Fare Reduction Options (22k .pdf)
En español
Resumen Ejecutivo; Título VI Valoración de las Opciones Propuestas
de Reducción Temporal de las Tarifas de BART(42k .pdf)
中文版
暫時調低票價的提議方案 公眾參與總結報告 (1055k .pdf)
執行摘要 第六篇：BART 暫時調降票價的提議方案評估 (130k. pdf)
Members of the public may submit comments on the budget. The public also is welcome to attend Board meetings in person or to watch them on live or on-demand webcast. Notices and agendas, directions to the meetings, and a link to the webcast are all available at www.bart.gov/board.