Sunday, January 10, 2010

Transit Rate Hikes

Once again, Metro Transit, which provides public bus transportation to the greater King County area and a little bit further in the greater Seattle area, is raising rates. Once again, it also seems like a tough time to do this. The economy is still ailing throughout the country and the Seattle area is definitely feeling it. It seems like a tough blow falling mostly on those that are already hardest hit, those that are riding public transportation due to financial reasons. It is starting to get a lot more expensive to ride public transit and when it starts getting closer to the cost of driving a car, the convenience of driving a personal vehicle can easily offset the slightly lower costs of public transit for many.

Unfortunately, Community Transit, which provides service more to Snohomish County (north of King County) and into King County, is also talking about rate hikes. They are currently discussing a rate hike and also no service on Sundays. That seems like it could be a real deal breaker for some people who need to be somewhere on Sundays if there is no transit service on Sundays. I think this would be a worse idea than cutting other service a little deeper throughout the week. Also, Community Transit has started their Swift service, a faster commuter bus that stops at fewer stops between Shoreline/Edmonds and Everett. It doesn't seem to ever have much ridership and although it is a new program, perhaps cutting that down to fewer runs could allow for Sunday service for at least the most used Community Transit routes, if not more.

It seems like with joblessness at a higher level and less money all around, rate hikes are a terrible idea at this time. I'm sure that ridership is down due to less work commuters, as I know many people who are now out of work and not daily riding with me to work. Still, there seems that there must be ways to keep transit fares affordable for everybody while still making it feasible to maintain these services...