I'm curious to hear how everyone (especially you M1EK) feels about commuter rail ticket pricing and specifically what is talked about in the article:
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...0514zoned.html
Commuter rail: Pay more to go more?
Capital Metro considering 'zoned' prices for 32-mile lines to achieve 'psychological equity'
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Capital Metro officials are considering "zoned" prices for commuter rail, setting up a tiered fare schedule so that the farther passengers travel, the more they would pay.
Capital Metro board Chairman Lee Walker said Monday at a board meeting that if for no other reason than "psychological equity," it makes sense to have zoned prices.
But doing it might not be easy. Capital Metro's 32-mile commuter rail line from Leander to Austin, when it opens late this year or early next year, will have open platforms and no conductors on its trains. This setup is similar to most light rail systems, including those in Dallas and Houston, which typically don't have zoned prices.
Some systems, such as the one in Washington, have "closed" platforms. Passengers buy a card with a certain amount of money programmed into it, then pass the money card through an electronic reader at a turnstile. That records where the passenger got on. Then the rider, after leaving the train, puts that card through another turnstile on the way out, which notes the destination.
The customer is charged an amount commensurate to the distance traveled, and gets back the card with that amount deducted. There will be no turnstiles or fences around the nine local stations.
On Capital Metro's commuter line, as is the case in Dallas and Houston and other systems, customers will simply walk up to the platform, put money in a machine and get a ticket. Then, when the train comes, they board. Unlike on a bus, where riders pass by the driver and pay at the front, the train operator will be in a closed compartment and won't have interaction with passengers.
Capital Metro security officers will be on board some trains to check people for tickets. Those caught with no ticket, or potentially the wrong ticket in a zoned system, would be escorted off at the next station "in order to purchase a valid ticket," Capital Metro spokesman Adam Shaivitz said in an e-mail Tuesday. "Officers will have the authority to issue citations for theft of services and other offenses."
Unless the agency board decides to have zoned prices, those who get on in Leander and go 32 miles to downtown Austin would pay no more than a person who gets on at the last stop, Saltillo Plaza near Fifth and Comal streets, and travels 0.8 of a mile.
"My instinct would be to go with zoned prices," Walker said. Board members Brewster McCracken and John Cowman said Monday that conceptually they support a tiered fare system as well.
Randy Hume, Capital Metro's chief financial officer, said the way it might work is that people getting on at the two stops farthest out, Leander and Lakeline Mall, would pay the full suggested price of $1.50. People who board on the seven stops farther in, Hume said, would pay a lower rate, which would be comparable to a regular bus price. That fare is 50 cents now, but under a fare increase plan the board is discussing, the base fare would go up to 75 cents in 2009.
But there could be complications.Passengers who board at either end could be headed for an early stop — in theory cheaper to purchase — or to the far end of the line in the higher-priced zone. Capital Metro would have to find a way to differentiate the tickets, and effectively educate riders on which to buy, and how.
The board must also decide whether two zones are enough. The Howard Lane/MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) stop is 14.7 miles from downtown, but under the current thinking would have the same fare as the short hop to Plaza Saltillo.
Dallas, despite the possibility of a 35-mile trip from Plano to South Dallas on its light rail system, does not have zones. However, the Trinity River Express commuter line between Fort Worth and Dallas, owned jointly by the two cities' transit agencies, does have differing rates for trips within a county, or all the way from one city to the other.