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DR. GRIDLOCK Robert Thomson
LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST Metro fares a-changin’ again
A 10-cent emergency fee ended in June but was followed by varied increases; this week brings new modifications, including a peak-of-the-peak surcharge
by Robert Thomson T
his week, Metro riders must adjust to the third round of fare increases in six months. It’s not just the pace. It’s also
the variety. Here’s a look at what we’ve been through and what’s coming up in August.
SPARE A DIME? On Feb. 28, green, softball-size decals attached to the fare gates announced that riders would be charged an extra 10 cents per ride. The Metro board imposed the surcharge as an emergency measure to help balance its oper- ating budget and avoid service cuts. This step, coming in the middle of Metro’s fiscal year, was an unusual one, but it was rela- tively easy for riders to under- stand. Everyone paid the same additional charge. It expired as the fiscal year ended in June.
THE BIG ROUND A little over a month ago, the fare charts on the station kiosks were changed as Metro launched a much larger, broader and more varied set of increases. Metrorail fares rose by about 18 percent overall June 27, although the fares varied with the length of the trip and the time of day. Friday and Saturday night-owl riders started paying peak fares. Metrobus fares rose 20 percent for riders paying with SmarTrip cards and about 25 percent for riders paying with cash. The MetroAccess base fare increased from $2.50 to $3, with a $2 to $4 supplemental charge on riders whose trips start or end more than three-fourths of a mile from Metrobus or Metrorail lines. Fares for airport buses and rental charges for bike lockers were among the other increases.
HALFWAY TO PEAK Now, in the latest round, it gets hard. On Monday, Metrorail rid- ers will see yellow, softball-size decals on the fare vending ma- chines announcing that a new fee, called the peak-of-the-peak surcharge, will be imposed on trips taken at the busiest times, 7:30 to 9 a.m. and 4:30 to 6 p.m. That would be complicated enough for many riders, but then there’s this: For the next few weeks, the 20-cent surcharge will be imposed only on those after- noon trips. That’s because Metro is still struggling to upgrade its fare programming. This should be done by the end of August, but Metro has not set an exact date for applying the morning surcharge. This means that for most of August, a typical 9-to-5 commuter who makes two rail trips a day at the busiest times will pay an extra dollar a week rather than two dollars. Meanwhile, Metro stands to
A full schedule of fare changes
T e increases will occur this year in three phases. T ese are the new prices.
1 METRORAIL June 27
● 18 percent fare increase, peak and off -peak.
● Passes rise 15 percent, to: One-day pass
$9
7-Day Short Trip Pass $30.35 7-Day Fast Pass
SmartStudent Pass
$45 $30
D.C. student 10-trip card $9.50 Transit Link Card
$92
METROBUS No anticipated changes Sunday.
Regular fares SmarTrip Cash
Express fares SmarTrip Cash
Flash pass fares Weekly pass
$1.50 $1.70
$3.65 $3.85
$15
Adult tokens (10-pack) $17 D.C. student tokens (10) $7.50 Weekly senior pass
$7.50 Weekly disabled pass $7.50
● Reduce bus-to-bus transfer from three hours to two hours. ● Increase airport fare to $6. ● Continue practice of supplementing some fares.
METROACCESS
● Increase fares to two times the new bus fare, or $3, with a maximum fare of $7, including the new supplemental fares:
Zone 1 Zone 2
Zones 3 and 4
BIKE LOCKERS, PARKING
SOURCE: Metro
$2 $3 $4
T e yearly bike locker fee will be $200. T ere will be no increases in regular-fee or metered parking, but reserved parking might increase by $10, to $65 a month.
lose $200,000 to $375,000 in an- ticipated revenue, depending on exactly when the programming problem is resolved.
HOW TO BEAT IT The peak-of-the-peak sur-
charge will be assessed when the rider enters the rail system. It doesn’t matter how far the ride is or when the rider exits. That means that if you have some flex- ibility, you can save money by en- tering the system earlier or later than the busiest times. So as of Monday, if you can go through the fare gate at 6:05 p.m. rather than 5:55 p.m., you’ll save 20 cents. If you travel on the early
side of the afternoon peak, and would normally go through the gate at 4:40 p.m., you could save 20 cents by sliding out of work a little earlier and going through the gate at 4:25 p.m.
SMARTRIP DIFFERENTIAL Another significant fare boost begins Sunday. Rail riders who use paper Farecards will pay 25 cents more per trip than riders who use SmarTrip cards. Metro had great success moving bus rid- ers to use the electronic cards af- ter imposing a penalty on cash fares. It’s hoping for a similar out- come now with a rail fare differ- ential.
PASSES
Also on Sunday, the cost of three Metrorail passes will in- crease. The Weekly Short Trip Pass will be $32.35, the Weekly Fast Pass will be $47 and the Transit Link Card for MARC and VRE riders will be $102.
CHEAPER SMARTRIP CARDS The one thing that will be cheaper is the cost of buying a SmarTrip card. On Aug. 29, Met- ro will drop the charge from $5 to $2.50. So as the transit authority pushes riders away from paper and toward plastic, it will be making the plastic cheaper.
drgridlock@washpost.com
DR. G’S TIPS
CROSSING IN TYSONS Fences are going up around the work zone for the Tysons Central 7 Metrorail station to prevent walkers and bikers from entering the construction area to cross Route 7. Managers on the Dulles Metrorail project want people to use a crosswalk at Gosnell Road/ Westpark Drive. Many pedestrians and cyclists would just as soon swim the Poto- mac as cross Route 7. Moving out into the river of traffic has long been an adrenaline rush — and not in a good way. One of the planning goals in the redevel- opment of Tysons Corner is to make this urban area friendlier for people not using cars. But that hasn’t happened yet. All travelers on Route 7 must be
THE DAILY QUIZ
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prepared for frequently changing traffic patterns and paving work. The old service roads have be- come part of a wider Route 7.
INTERSECTION ETIQUETTE When power outages occur and
traffic signals fail, I’ve often urged drivers to treat darkened inter- sections as all-way stops. Now, I see John B. Townsend II at AAA Mid-Atlantic is noting that Mary- land has no law requiring that. Have I been telling people the wrong thing? No, said Buel C. Young, a
spokesman for the Maryland Mo- tor Vehicle Administration. “That’s what we recommend.” In fact, a list of driving tips that the agency put out last week included this: “When a traffic light is mal-
functioning or not working, you should treat this intersection as a four-way stop sign. Come to a complete stop and yield to all oth- er traffic, then proceed when the way is clear.” Still, there’s no Maryland law requiring drivers to do so. That was the point of Townsend’s state- ment. He noted that Del. Saqib Ali, who represents District 39 in Montgomery County, has pro- posed the Malfunctioning Traffic Light Act for the past three Gen- eral Assembly sessions. The bill would require drivers to reduce speed and prepare to yield when approaching an intersection with a dark signal.
ROUTE 7, LEESBURG Tuesday through Friday, watch
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for daytime traffic stops of up to 15 minutes on the Route 7 Bypass just west of the Route 15 in- terchange in Leesburg. All lanes will be stopped while Dominion Virginia Power crews pull wires across roadways for construction of its new power line. The stops are scheduled for be-
tween 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Tues- day through Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon Friday.
11TH STREET BRIDGE The construction plan for the
new 11th Street Bridge somewhat resembles the one used for the Wilson Bridge in that the new spans are rising alongside the old ones. That means for now, there’s a relatively limited impact on bridge users.
During August, watch for off- peak lane closings in both direc- tions on the bridge spans and nearby parts of the Southeast- Southwest Freeway, Interstate 295/DC 295 and local streets. The off-peak hours are 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays and 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. Sundays through Thurs- days.
BW PARKWAY On Monday, the National Park
Service is scheduled to start a roadway lighting improvement project on the Baltimore-Wash- ington Parkway in Prince George’s County. The light poles from the eastbound Route 50 split to just north of the entrance ramp connecting the northbound Kenilworth Avenue interchange
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will be replaced. New guardrails also will be installed. Construction crews will work behind shoulder closures from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. weekdays. There may be some single-lane closings. The scheduled completion date for all work is March.
WILSON BRIDGE TRAIL The Woodrow Wilson Bridge’s pedestrian/biker trail, which pro- vides spectacular views of the Po- tomac River and its shoreline, is scheduled to close between 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays starting Mon- day. These midday shutdowns for routine bridge inspections could last for up to two weeks.
For more traffic information, go to
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2 T is week On Sunday
● A 25-cent surcharge for non- SmarTrip fares. ● Some pass prices will increase:
7-Day Short Trip Pass $32.35 7-Day Fast Pass Transit Link Card
$47 $102 On Monday
● Aſt ernoon peak-of-the-peak surcharge of 20 cents will be in eff ect from 4:30 to 6 p.m.
● Equivalent morning surcharge, from 7:30 to 9 a.m., will not take eff ect for a few weeks, until Metro can reprogram its machines.
Just how seriously will Metro act on NTSB’s recommendations?
Dear Dr. Gridlock:
Red Line crash] should present no radically new information. Metro’s problems are documented thoroughly and can be attested to by anyone who uses the system regularly. What troubles me the most is
T
How much will your Metro fare increase? Use our calculator.
wapo.st/bqnmmd
what I heard on local TV and radio news: that only one Metro board member attended the hearing, and even then, that person did not stay for the entire presentation. Are they trying to avoid being in the spotlight or answering tough questions? Granted, they probably heard the details of the report beforehand, but as a group that has responsibility for the system, I would have expected them to be present. This points out the need for fundamental changes in how Metro is managed. The Metro board is essentially a political entity. As evidenced with funding issues, when push comes to shove, board members look at their constituencies ahead of the system as a whole. Perhaps it’s time to eliminate the board altogether and replace it with a professional management system —some kind of privately run operation or a government-private partnership that can manage the system like a business, set goals and expectations, manage performance, and so on. I don’t know what the answer is, but increasingly, I am less impressed by the Metro board and wonder if it is the most effective body to take the system in the fresh, new direction that is desperately needed. —Tim Ralston, Kensington
3 Fall
● MetroAccess fares will increase to twice the fi xed-route fare with a cap of $7. T e supplemental fee remains the same. T ere are no anticipated changes to bus and rail fares this fall.
THE WASHINGTON POST
There’s a story about a reporter asking a relief pitcher if it worried him to come into a close game with runners already on base. “Heck, no,” the pitcher replied. “I didn’t put ’em there.” Let this Metro board take responsibility for the mess that developed on its watch. These board members are at least as likely to make progress as a new crowd of overseers. Besides handing the Metro board its collective head last week, the NTSB handed over a long list of complicated recommendations to improve safety.
Being right there to receive the list wasn’t critical. Metro Board Chairman Peter Benjamin was unavoidably out of the country. Vice Chairman Catherine Hudgins, a Fairfax County supervisor, was there but also had to attend a county board meeting. Interim General Manager Richard Sarles was there, too. What’s really going to count is how seriously the board takes the shellacking it got and what it does about it. If you start hearing what sounds like, “We’re already doing that stuff,” then we’re in real trouble. If you hear them say,
he release of the National Transportation Safety Board report [on Metro’s
“We’re putting safety first,” then we’re only so-so — they’ve been saying that for years.
Some board members should do some soul-searching about whether they’re really up for the struggle to reform the political and bureaucratic structure of the transit authority. But there are plenty of board members with the knowledge and commitment to tackle this.
Will they?
Dear Dr. Gridlock: My question will unfortunately come across as sarcastic, but it is not meant that way. I do not know any way to sugarcoat it. Has there been any
determination of what services we can expect to decline with Metro’s next fare increase [Sunday]? I realize that they always say that there will be no service decreases, but they haven’t missed a decrease on any of their past fare increases. The last fare increase [in June] was preceded by many assurances that there was to be no decrease in service. Yet since that time, I’ve been offloaded six times (Orange Line). One of those was at Clarendon so our train could go back and pick up more riders, although exactly where the current folks were to go was unclear. Getting a seat on a train isn’t going to happen unless you ride the other way to the end of the line. If Metro could give us some warning of what is to be cut, that might help to alleviate some of the hostility that always seems to arise after every fare increase. —Don Desrosiers, Falls Church
Ralston wondered whether the board was afraid to answer tough questions. I think the board needs to focus on asking tougher questions of the transit staff not only about safety, but also about rail car crowding, escalator malfunctions and air-conditioner breakdowns — the everyday experiences of Desrosiers and thousands of others.
Dr. Gridlock also appears Thursday in Local Living. Comments and questions are welcome and may be used in a column, along with the writer’s name and home community. Personal responses are not always possible.
To contact Dr. Gridlock: By mail: Write to Dr. Gridlock at The Washington Post, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071. By e-mail:
drgridlock@washpost.com. On the Dr. Gridlock blog:
blog.washingtonpost.com/dr-gridlock. On Twitter: drgridlock.
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SUNDAY, AUGUST 1, 2010
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