Sign up to speak up in September to support integrated transit fares
Imagine - how many more people would use transit or be able to access more opportunities if we had...
Free transfers between agencies.
A universal ‘fare cap’ that limits the total amount you would pay in a week or month for transit anywhere in the Bay Area.
Transit passes that are valid on all transit agencies in the region that can be distributed by schools, universities, housing developments, job sites, employers, even neighborhoods to encourage transit use.
Predictable and standard fares for trains, regional buses, and ferries.
These ideas are not just fantasy any more - these are some of the policy options that are going to be coming forward in September in the recommendations of the regional Fare Integration and Coordination Study being led by transit agencies and MTC.
These integrated fare policy changes have the potential to make Bay Area transit far easier to understand, more affordable, and more accessible. They’re the type of common sense, impactful changes we need to pursue immediately to drive major ridership increases in transit use -- which we need urgently to avoid catastrophic climate change that contributes to our ongoing statewide drought and worsening wildfire problems.
Integrating fares has the potential to provide needed mobility improvements for lower-income people across the Bay Area. For example, the Bayview Hunters Point Community Based Transportation Plan included recommendations from community members for better access to regional transit, BART and Caltrain. Similarly, SamTrans’ quantitative user research and focus groups showed that SamTrans users – largely low income people of color - place high priority on better access to regional transit, BART and Caltrain.
Also, Integrating fares can help bring back ridership to transit across the Bay Area in a post-Covid world with relatively less peak hour commuting. After the WETA ferry agency restored service with more frequent mid-day and weekend service, and lowered its prices to be competitive with other transit options, weekend ridership jumped up to 70% of pre-Covid levels.
Short timeline for decisions
The detailed recommendations from the region’s Fare Integration and Coordination Study and Business Case, to be published in September, will include the results of a cost-benefit analysis, and detailed user research with people from a variety of backgrounds and parts of the Bay Area. Between September 10th and October 18th, the recommendations will be presented by the study’s staff and consultants to individual transit agency boards (like SFMTA, AC Transit, BART, and others) for consideration for potential endorsement.
Decisions about the recommendations could be made as soon as October 18, and funding for some of the recommendations could be made available by MTC by late October.
Transit riders may see initial fare policy changes in early 2022, but with substantive changes like free transfers rolling out in 2023, in concert with the rollout of the next-generation Clipper system. The largest changes to achieve ‘complete’ fare integration may require funding not yet available, but which could be prioritized (if integrated fares are viewed as a high priority) in a future regional transit funding package.
How you can help
As transit agency boards weigh these recommendations and consider making changes in the coming months in support of more integrated fares, it will be critically important for transit leaders to hear from riders about the benefits of these changes to their lives and communities. Fare integration represents a big change for transit agencies, who are used to being able to decide separately how to alter fares, and when to add or remove transfer discounts. We encourage you to sign up here to ‘adopt’ the transit agencies you use and commit to providing public comment or written feedback in support of integrated fares in September and October. Once you sign up, we’ll connect you with opportunities to work with a local team in support of change.
