Integrated Transit Fares proposal wins MTC’s Transformational Projects contest
An integrated fare system for Bay Area transit riders is moving one step closer to reality.
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) has selected an integrated transit fare proposal submitted by three groups — Seamless Bay Area, SPUR, and duo Jason Lee and Eddy Ionsescu — as the winner of its first-ever Transformative Transportation Projects competition. The award will be officially announced on Friday, February 14 at a meeting of the MTC Administrative Committee.
Seamless Bay Area’s proposal outlines a comprehensive plan for fare, service, and branding integration across the 27 transit agencies that operate in the Bay Area.
The plan took the top spot in the contest’s operational strategies category, showing a high benefit-cost ratio across a range of potential future scenarios for the region. MTC analysis forecasted that for every dollar spent on the project, $5 to $10 in benefits would be returned to the region, showing a very strong return on investment. The proposal was also found to advance equity goals, and was broadly supported by equity groups providing feedback to MTC.
Ridership modeling conducted by MTC concluded that integrated fares have the potential to attract hundreds of thousands of new daily transit riders. In addition, MTC assessed that regionally integrated transit fares would be revenue-neutral over the long term - an encouraging finding that is consistent with the experience of other regions that have seen ridership increases when fare integration is introduced.
Because of the project’s potential positive impact on transit riders across the region, MTC staff are recommending that integrated fares be included as a strategy within Plan Bay Area 2050, the region’s next long-range transportation plan.
A draft set of recommended strategies for Plan Bay Area 2050, based on MTC’s modeling, will be also discussed at the February 14 meeting. The staff report includes the recommendation that the fare proposal from Seamless Bay Area should be included in the long-range plan:
Reform Regional Transit Fare Policy
Description: Streamline fare payment and replace existing operator-specific discounted fare programs with an integrated fare structure across all transit operators. The regional integrated fare structure would consist of a flat local fare with free transfers across operators and a distance or zone-based fare for regional trips, with discounts for youth, people with disabilities, and very low-income people. Funding: revenue-neutral due to incentivized growth in transit trips; $10 billion for means-based fare discount
Greater Copenhagen’s zone-based fare map covers all forms of transit and the entire metropolitan region, providing predictability and fairness for transit users going to and from any part of the region, regardless of what transit agency operates service. Seamless Bay Area’s winning proposal outlines a comprehensive plan for fare, service, and branding integration across the 27 transit agencies that operate in the Bay Area.
In addition to fare integration, Seamless Bay Area’s proposal calls for Bay Area transit agencies to work together to establish predictable, regionally integrated routes, and recommends that agencies develop and deploy approachable shared wayfinding, maps, and branding, which would further improve ease of use for riders.
Launched in June 2018, the MTC Transformative Projects contest invited Bay Area residents, private sector companies, and nongovernmental organizations to propose “new and creative solutions for Bay Area transportation challenges” that will inform MTC’s long-range planning process. The final adoption of Plan Bay Area 2050 by MTC and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) is scheduled for June 2021.
Members of the public can help ensure that integrated fares are included in Plan Bay Area 2050 by taking these actions:
The Joint MTC Planning Committee/ABAG Administrative Committee will be discussing integrated fares at its meeting this Friday, Feb. 14, at 9:40 a.m. at 375 Beale Street, San Francisco. Drop by and share the message that you support the inclusion of a Integrated Fare System as a strategy within Plan Bay Area 2050 (Agenda Item #5b), which will have a positive impact on transit equity and help attract new transit riders. The full meeting agenda is available on the MTC website. The agenda item is likely to come up between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 pm. Pro tip: if you are nearby, you can watch the meeting livestream and come by when the agenda item comes up for consideration.
Email the MTC/ABAG Committee by Thursday afternoon (Feb. 13) and encourage them to support integrated fares in Plan Bay Area 2050. Letters received by 4:00 p.m. will be printed for the meeting on Friday morning and posted online. Address your letter to the chairs - James P. Spering, MTC Chair and David Rabbitt, ABAG Chair - and committee members, and send it with attention to Martha Silver (MSilver@bayareametro.gov) and Fred Castro (fcastro@bayareametro.gov).
If you haven’t yet, sign this petition supporting a Seamless Transit System around the Bay Area. Principle #4 is “Align transit prices to be simple, fair, and affordable.” Having a long list of supporters helps transit agencies and regional boards understand that there is mass support.
Finally, while having Fare Integration included in Plan Bay Area 2050 is an important first step to implement integrated fares, the Bay Area currently lacks the appropriate governance framework to to implement the policy. Currently, fare policy is the purview of individual operators and has a significant impact on the finances of transit agencies. Broader governance reforms, including those proposed as part of AB 2057, the Bay Area Seamless Transit Act, will greatly facilitate the creation of an integrated fare system.