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Last Updated: Oct 16th, 2008 - 13:33:17 |
Planning to raise rates again, the RTD must find money to fund a projected operating budget deficit of $35.6 million.
A 14 percent across-the-board fare increase, which will be voted on later this month, is likely to pass, said Paulita Tonilas, RTD FasTracks public information mamager.
The increase will bump local fares up 25 cents from $1.75 to $2.
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Photo by Sean Mullins/smullin5@mscd.edu
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Students at Auraria will see the price of their bus pass fee go up, though not as substantially, said Blaine Nickeson, interim division director for Student and Auxiliary Services.
Currently, students pay $37 per semester for the pass, with the price expected to increase to $39 next fall, the maximum amount students approved last spring.
"The student pass contract is affected directly by RTD's general fares. If the RTD board elects to raise their fares for this January, as is proposed, it will directly affect the cost of the student pass program," Nickeson said.
The fee is determined partially by the total number of student bus rides and reflects a 45 percent discount.
"Last year, students took two-and-a-half million rides," Nickeson said.
While waiting to take the light rail home, 18-year-old Metro student Adriana Perez vented about the lack of parking at RTD park-n-rides and paying more to ride the trains.
Perez's friend Ontha Naoum, an 18-year-old UCD student, said increasing fees and asking to increase taxes for the FasTracks defeats the purpose of riding the bus or light rail.
"To pay for it is ridiculous. You already have to pay to drive. People look at RTD services as a way to save money," Naoum said.
The fare increase comes as RTD readies to ask voters for additional funds to keep their system-wide expansion plan on track.
FasTracks, RTD's 12-year plan to expand existing light rail lines and bus routes across the front range is also facing issues.
Due to the soaring cost of gas and building materials coupled with slumping sales tax revenues that have failed to meet projections.
The expansion would link the front range, snaking north to Longmont, south to Castle Rock, west to Golden and east to Denver International Airport, adding an additional 122 miles of light rail and commuter train lines.
Voters approved the plan and its $4.7 billion price tag in 2004. As fuel costs rose and economic conditions changed, RTD was forced to increase this cost estimate by $2.4 billion to complete the project by 2017.
The expansion plan will now be pegged at $7.1 billion, Tonilas said.
RTD is asking for feedback from front range residents about what they believe is the best choice for the future of FasTracks at a series 16 public meetings that start Sept. 25.
"Essentially, we'll be presenting where we are at and how we got here," Tonilas said. "We have four plans that we feel are strong, solid options,"
The first two proposals involve building what can be built with the current budget by 2017, guaranteeing that only three of the new corridors, the West Corridor to Golden, the East Corridor to DIA and the Gold Line to Wheat Ridge, will be completed.
Construction on other corridors would be finished as funds became available, pushing the final finish date for the entire expansion back substantially.
The Gold Line, East and West Corridor would also be completed under a third plan, while the other expansion lines would be constructed as single-track operations, with incremental train service.
"We could go farther, but we'd have to limit service," Tonilas said of the plan.
A hike in taxes and finding additional sources of revenues are the final option for completing the expansion, an option Tonilas acknowledged might be tough for the public to hear.
"RTD is very reliant on sales tax revenues. Right now, sales tax revenues are not at all what we projected," Tonilas said.
Convincing metro area residents who have already been hit with increased RTD fares to get on board for higher taxes could be a hard task.
Information about the public FasTracks meetings can be found online at http://www.rtd-fastracks.com/main_138
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