Members of Congress call on federal government to support fare integration
The movement for regionally integrated fares for public transit has gone national. Eighteen members of Congress, led by Representatives Mike Quigley of Chicago and Mark DeSaulnier of Contra Costa County, submitted a letter to the Federal Transit Administration last month calling on the federal government to provide support for regions seeking to integrate transit fares.
“Public transportation is a critical tool in decreasing congestion and commute times, improving quality of life, and reducing harmful pollution and we must continue innovating to ensure it can best serve our communities,” said Congressman DeSaulnier. “Fare integration would do just that, helping to provide for the long-term viability, convenience, and equity of public transit.”
Seamless Bay Area partnered with the Civic Committee of the Commercial Club of Chicago and Representatives Quigley and DeSaulnier on the letter, and activated transit advocates nationwide to encourage members of Congress from across the country to become co-signers. Other co-signers include California Representatives Barbara Lee, Nanette Diaz Barragán and Alan Lowenthal, as well as representatives from Illinois, Maryland, Washington DC, Massachusetts, and Georgia.
Federal interest in fare integration has been growing since June 2022, when the Congressional Committee on Appropriations, which Rep. Quigley sits on, included report language emphasizing fare integration as a priority in its FY 2023 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill:
Fare integration.—The Committee notes that metropolitan areas throughout the country have established or are considering integrated fares where transit and shared transportation modes are delivered by different local agencies. Integrated fares can offer a seamless transit experience for riders, which can help increase ridership and help transition fragmented public transit agencies into more unified, equitable, and widely used systems. The Committee supports such fare integration efforts, including in the Chicago region where transit agencies have made progress on a regional connect pass. The Committee encourages the FTA to assist transit agencies through technical assistance and best practices on how to successfully establish integrated fare systems that include shared transportation options and support seamless transfers between transit agencies in a regional area.
The joint letter from members of Congress builds off of this report, and specifically calls for the FTA to support regions by developing and distributing best practices for fare integration, ensuring costs associated with fare integration and eligible under FTA’s grant programs, and giving preference to applications for competitive grants that include efforts to make transit seamless.
Support from FTA for fare integration could be extremely helpful efforts in the Bay Area and Chicago to integrate fares. As the result of advocacy by Seamless Bay Area and other rider groups, the San Francisco Bay Area completed a Fare Integration Business Case Study in 2021 and adopted an ambitious plan to unify fares across the region’s two dozen agencies to increase transit ridership, improve the user experience and expand affordable access. The Bay Area’s study found that fare integration policies like free transfers, multi-agency passes, and a common fare structure for regional services could increase daily transit ridership by over 68,000 trips, equal to the number of riders who took Caltrain each day prior to COVID.
However, despite the benefits of fare integration, including to reduce vehicle miles traveled and combat climate change, regions face many obstacles to implementation. These include the lack of regional, state, or federal resources to cover up front and ongoing costs, and lack of institutional experience in governing fare integration programs, which can involve complex financial arrangements and novel governance structures among transit agencies and regional authorities.
Seamless Bay Area is extremely grateful to Reps. Quigley and DeSaulnier for highlighting the importance of federal support for fare integration as part of a national transit policy.
“Seamless, integrated fare systems can expand equitable access and ridership of transit services across our country,” said Rep. Mike Quigley. “The federal government can and should work to promote these systems, and I look forward to continuing to support this effort in the 118th Congress.”
As the House moves forward with its business in the coming weeks and months, Seamless Bay Area looks forward to working with FTA, elected leaders, and other partners to advocate for federal policies and funding that can support seamless transit.