Rescue Muni

The SFMTA’s project to upgrade Metro fare gates has received an $11 million boost from the Fed’s stimulus package. The $29 million project to replace fare gates with cashless Translink-only gates will be moved up 1 and a half years for completion in the fall of 2010.

Passengers will still be able to buy single rides by using fare machines similar to what BART uses and accept cash, debit, or credit to pay for a fare. Fast Passes will be accepted until they are phased out in favor of electronic monthly passes on Translink.

As part of the continuing budget debate about the MTA, Supervisor Dufty is urging Muni to raise fines for fare evasion to $75 from the current $50, and more importantly raise fines for repeat offenses to $500 for a third offense.

Although this won’t close the budget gap on its own, this is a much needed proposal. Fare evasion is a serious problem on Muni, particularly on many bus lines where riders board via the back door with impunity. With fares going up to $2 soon, fare paying riders deserve to know that everyone is paying his or her fair share. If this is done, MTA needs to post signs reminding riders of the $500 maximum fine - as is done for red light photo enforcement and carpool lanes.

Perhaps littering on the bus should also have a $500 maximum fine?

The Supervisors yesterday declined to reject the MTA budget after a deal was struck with MTA director Nat Ford to make $10 million in budget cuts, including only $2.8 million in cuts to work orders (out of $63 million - read down to 6:41 PM in SF Appeal’s live blog) to other city departments, in an attempt to avoid further cuts in service. Among the cuts was a decision to delay hiring of parking control officers and fare inspectors, which is likely to cause more service delays and could reduce parking revenue.

No details yet on which work orders will be reduced, though riders who have recently seen cops on the buses should now expect them to disappear, now that SFPD is keeping the majority (or all?) of its inflated allocation and isn’t making a show of cooperating with the MTA. There does not appear to have been a decision to move control of the traffic division to MTA, as was previously proposed.

Fares will still go up as scheduled, except for Lifeline Pass users.

Update: The Budget Committee voted to send the motion to reject the budget back to the full board. At the moment the motion doesn’t have the votes, so the budget is likely to stand.

Improved fare enforcement and more people deciding to save money and stress by taking transit has boosted Muni’s bottom line, with cable cars raising the biggest slice, bringing in a whopping $14.5M, or 21% more over the last 6 months. Muni could really use the money too, with a projected $90M shortfall over the next 18 months.

Rescue Muni is monitoring the budget situation and will publish how the numbers will add up to in a future posting.

Today’s Chronicle reports that Muni wrote just over 10,000 fare evasion tickets last quarter, for a total of over 26,000 for the year. It’s still a drop in the bucket compared with the total amount of fare evasion, but every little bit counts - particularly because fare enforcement on the buses allows legal rear door boarding, which speeds up service.

Reminder: Sign up for Translink to speed up your own fare payment - and avoid a ticket!