SacRT staff is proposing a fare decrease (what? decrease?) on the board meeting agenda tonight, Monday, August 27. Item 8, ‘Building Ridership through Fare Reductions’ would reduce the single ride price from $2.75 to $2.50, which was the price before the increases in 2016, would reduce the monthly pass rate from $110 back to $100, continue the students $20 monthly pass, and bring back transfers for paper and cash fares, at 25 cents. The daily rate would remain at the higher level, $7. Discounts rates would remain at 50%. The new fares would take effect October 1, and continue through March 31, 2019. These would be reconsidered before that time. SacRT has realized that the fare increase in 2016 had a significant adverse effect on ridership, and that over time the initial income from higher fares was lost to a drop in ridership.

STAR completely supports this reduction in fares. We spoke and wrote against the fare increases in 2016, and were able to get SacRT to drop the second phase of fare increases. We expect that the board will adopt these new fares, and are not expecting controversy over them, but it would still be a good idea to have a show of transit riders supporting the change and thanking staff for doing the right thing.

A table of the fare changes is below.

• SacRT