Action Alert!

The MTC's Means-Based Fare Program Needs Your Support

24863586802_1936886932_z.jpg

Seamless Bay Area strongly supports progress toward streamlining regional fares. Coordinated fares are a hallmark of well-performing regional transit systems around the world, as Alon Levy presented early in April in his talk we co-sponsored on international practices for rail and transit excellence.

The MTC has been working on a regional means-based transit fare program, intended to provide limited discounts to low income households for travel on Golden Gate Transit, Muni, BART and Caltrain services. But progress has been slow, and now a coalition of transit advocates—including Seamless Bay Area—are advocating for a fast track "Launch and Grow" proposal that would get this program off the ground and start making much needed progress on fare integration. While limited, our proposal would advance one of the first regional fare policy attempt for decades, carefully framed as a pilot to help agencies learn how to do this right, feeding lessons into Clipper 2.0 and beyond. For more detail, check out a great, in-depth post by Friends of Caltrain on the history of this process and why it matters. If you'd like to read the letter that we sent on behalf of Seamless Bay Area and Friends of Caltrain, you can read it here.

What you can do now

Reach out to members of the MTC Programming and Allocations Committee (see contact details below) before May 9. Urge them to adopt the "Launch and Grow" proposal supported by Friends of Caltrain, San Francisco Transit Riders, TransForm, Seamless Bay Area, and others. Ask them to keep the Bay Area moving towards a vision of seamless, unified, world-class transit.

MTC’s Programming and Allocations Committee

  • Nick Josefowitz (San Francisco), Chair – nickj@getsfmoving.com, @josefow
  • Carol Dutra-Vernaci (Alameda County), Vice Chair – CarolD@UnionCity.org, @UCMayorCarol
  • Jeannie Bruins (Santa Clara County) – jbruins@losaltosca.gov, @jeanniebruins
  • Federal D. Glover (Contra Costa County) – district5@bos.cccounty.us
  • Jane Kim (San Francisco) – Jane.Kim@sfgov.org, @JaneKim
  • Alfredo Pedroza (Napa County) – alfredo.pedroza@countyofnapa.org, @AlfredoPedrozaR
  • Libby Schaaf (Alameda County) – officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com, @LibbySchaaf
  • Warren Slocum (San Mateo County) – WSlocum@smcgov.org, @warrenslocum
  • Amy R. Worth (Contra Costa County) – aworth@cityoforinda.org
  • Non-voting member: Bijan Sartipi (Caltrans), @bijanet
Action AlertsBeaudry Kockfare integration