Is TriMet trying to boost revenue by pushing low-income Portland area riders away from 'unintended' round trips? | OregonLive.com

Is TriMet trying to boost revenue by pushing low-income Portland area riders away from 'unintended' round trips? | OregonLive.com

 """Yet if you ask any of the roughly 31 percent of TriMet riders who use cash fares daily, they’ll likely say the time-based system gives them the right to board a bus or train and ride anywhere in the system for two hours. Whether you’re a transit-dependent single mom or a retiree on a fixed income, that comes in handy for quick-and-cheap round trips to run errands."""
~~~~>It's always been that way.
"""For an adult living below the poverty line, that's the difference between spending $2.50 and $5"""
~~~>A 'day ticket' seems like a good deal, for a day. However if a fixed income person spends $5/day on a day pass that's $150/mo which is huge.
""""“There’s a lot of confusion about TriMet’s fare policy -- what it’s intended to be, what it is in practice, what it's become,” said Jon Ostar, executive director of OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, which has spearheaded the "Campaign for a Fair Transfer." “It seems their underlying motive is to capture as much revenue as possible, regardless of whose pocket it’s coming out of.""
~~~~>I agree 100% with Mr Ostar, Trimet is just trying to get every single penny out of every single rider that they can. Don't forget there is no 'low income pass' here like at many Transit districts. They gave a million dollars to various agencies to deal with the poor of the area but who knows how to access any of that. I haven't seen one news release on how to access those funds for low income people.
"""TriMet's own data shows that while two out of every three cash-paying riders are low-income, about 75 percent of round-trippers are also low-income."""
~~~>There ya go, Trimet's own data shows that most of their riders cannot afford them
""""A TriMet customer service representative named “Janet P.” replied that Weick was using her ticket the wrong way. “A single fare is two hours because it is only meant to get you from your starting point to your destination,” Janet P. wrote. “If you need to make a trip, run errands, and take the bus back, TriMet does offer a day ticket.”""
~~~~>I don't think even one bus driver knows anything about that. And how would anybody be able to check something like that?  Once again Trimet management has no idea what is going on in the field.
"""So does that mean a transfer to a single destination? Or does it include transfers that allows round trips on one ticket? “Certainly,” McFarlane said, “round trips are an unintended, positive benefit of having a time-based system.”
~~~~>So this is just coming out of the blue huh? Yup, it sounds to me like they are setting up for some kind of major change to transfer policies
""""Simple: With a series of service cuts in recent years, especially in the suburbs, and rush-hour traffic worsening as the economy improves, it’s harder than ever to make even a one-way trip on a single fare."""
~~~~>If your living outside Portland proper and there is a service disruption, which happens often lately, the 2 hours is not enough time to get to a destination with a transfer time of 2 hours
"""“If TriMet really cared about equity and mitigating the impact of the fare hikes and service cuts in recent years,” Ostar said, “it would have extended transfers to three hours already, and wouldn't be nickel-and-diming us debating 2.5 hours.”""
~~~>YUP!
"""“They deliberately moved away from one-way fares decades ago,” Howell said. “I don’t see how keeping riders confused leads to more ridership and confidence in the system.”""
~~~>What we are seeing reflected in these fare policy remarks is the evolution of Trimet from a real 'transit service' to a 'real estate development agency'. The real mission of Trimet has evolved away from the public that it was supposedly serving to supporting capital projects and the so called 'transit oriented development'. It's quite a sad commentary, once again the rich and connected become the target of government funds rather than the citizenry. Trimet is pretty yuppified transit  catering to an 'image' it has created by itself with no real concern for the public any longer