Rescue Muni

Market Street Railway has the details.

SFMTA is including in its budget proposals a suggestion to charge six dollars for a ride on the F-Market line, the same as the cable cars. This is a terrible idea! The F-line is vital public transportation for the Market Street and Embarcadero corridors, for tens of thousands of commuters (18,520 in 2006 when the TEP research was done) as well as tourists, many of whom pay cash. We stand with Market Street Railway in urging SFMTA not to target one specific set of riders for fare increases!

The SFMTA might receive $6.7m out of $15m allocated by the MTC for introducing new riders to the system. Those funds could be allocated to the defunct free youth ride program, which would create a 22-month pilot program to give free passes to 40,000 of the city’s low income youth. The SFMTA would still need to put in $4.4m of the $9m plan.

“With the funds specifically available for the program, it could be up and running by early next year”, said Supervisor David Campos. SFMTA board Chairman Tom Nolan says that the money could be better spent elsewhere in the system, and SFMTA spokesman Paul Rose said the agency won’t make a decision until after the Oct 24th vote.

Nearly 38,000 citations have been issued since MUNI security chief Lea Militello hit the streets with her new strategy of placing inspectors all over the system, instead of concentrating on the same areas, and by performing more inspection saturation operations. The current fare evasion rate now hangs at 4.7%.

This Sunday, Muni’s all door boarding policy officially starts. Muni will have more inspectors to check for those who don’t pay, increasing from 42 to 52 officers. With 30% of Muni’s time spent boarding passengers, boarding through any door on buses could save the agency as much as $76m per year by speeding up average service by 1mph.