[PRCo] Re: Fares

[Fred Schneider]

I think SEPTA is up to $2.  Seems that Muni is dirt cheap.  The national average
fare box recovery has dropped to somewhere around 30% ... Swindler would know
more precisely.

For what it's worth, the normal fare in 1900 was a nickle and the income was
typically higher than costs, and costs then included operating expenses,
right-of-way, property and equipment amortization and depreciation, taxes.  The
easiest way to convert 1900 dollars to 2000 dollars is to move the decimal two
places to the right.   I said the easiest way, I didn't say perfect way.  The
Consumer Price Index attempts to measure changes but there is no ideal way
because consumers will replace an abnormally expensive item with a cheaper
commodity ... just because costs went up 100 fold in 100 years doesn't mean
people are buying those items that went up 100 times in cost.

But, for the sake of argument, let's take that nickel fare and move the decimal
two places to the right and we have a $5.00 fare today.  Do we?

Remember there are certain costs of providing a service that have disappeared.
First of all, government never taxes itself, therefore we would have to add back
into the equation the current value of pole taxes (perhaps up that to $50 a pole
from about 50 cents when the lines were built, or $1,500 a mile), $2,500 per car
(we won't have $25 car licenses these days), sweeping streets of snow, washing
dirt offg streets, police at crossings (that would be $200,000 a year in
Washington these days for each trolley crossing in DC), property taxes on
right's-of-way, car houses, office buildings, car stop shelters, and don't forget
corporate income taxes (50% of what we make).

As John Swindler likes to point out, the only real money is local money.  Because
of this we no longer count amortization and depreciation.  When we say that we
recover 30% of the cost of the service from the farebox, we are also excluding
the first cost of cars and buses, right-of-way acquisition for light rail lines,
new car houses, new office buildings, and major capital improvements (such as
rebuilding transit cars).   These items simply no longer exist.  They are
free!!!!

So if we have a $1.50 fare (probably not far off nationally these days), increase
it by 100 over 30, and then add back in capital costs, heavy repairs, and the
loss of taxes .... the true fare probably is around $6 to $7 range these days.
How'd ya like them apples...  (So you are being taxed about $5.50 for every
rider.)



Jim Holland wrote:

> Good Morning!
>
>         Reality is quite harsh here.
>
>         .......But Reality is misrepresented.   When talking about wages and
> benefits and their contribution to the budget, only the drivers are ever
> mentioned.
>         In San Francisco, the Muni has 4,100-employees - ONLY 55% of these
> employees are drivers.   What about the contribution of wages for the other
-- Trailing quotes stripped by Listar --