[PRCo] Re: Emailing: SEPTA to seek token and transfer price hikes - Philadelphia Business Journal

[Fred Schneider]

Remember when the PUC had rules that allowed corporations to make a  
minimum return on investment?    Strange concept wasn't it.    It  
matters that we eliminate transfers because that discriminates  
against the poor according to someone's imagination or survey but I  
guess it doesn't matter if the service is eliminated because no  
politician funds it?

On Sep 21, 2007, at 11:41 AM, billvigrass forwarded:

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> SEPTA to seek token and transfer price hikes
> Philadelphia Business Journal - 5:23 PM EDT Wednesday, September  
> 19, 2007
> SEPTA will seek approval from its board next week to hike the price  
> of tokens and transfers by 15 cents each, to cushion the revenue  
> loss from having to continue paper transfers, SEPTA officials  
> announced Wednesday.
>
> SEPTA officials reported a $1.9 million city revenue shortfall  
> through last month, which they blamed on a court order that has  
> kept them from eliminating paper transfers as part of an overall 11  
> percent fare hike.
>
> The decision, the result of a city lawsuit, is being appealed in  
> the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania by SEPTA. In the interim,  
> SEPTA stands to lose a projected $300,000 per week due to commuters  
> using tokens and transfers that are a better deal than the weekly  
> TransPass, SEPTA officials said.
>
> Pushing tokens up from $1.30 to $1.45 and paper transfers from 60  
> cents to 75 cents would partially fill the budget shortfall, which  
> SEPTA officials asserted was caused by people not making the switch  
> to TransPasses, or by making the switch from TransPasses to cheaper  
> tokens and transfers. SEPTA officials were unable to provide any  
> information on the number of commuters who stopped buying TransPasses.
>
> Continuation of the transfers has allowed one-third of commuters to  
> escape SEPTA's fare hikes and reduced the effective fare increase  
> from 11 percent to 8 percent, SEPTA officials reported.
>
> The fare hike proposal will go before the board on Sept. 27. If  
> approved if would take effect on Oct. 1.
>
> City officials, who so far have successfully fought SEPTA's  
> elimination of transfers on the grounds it hurt the city's lower- 
> income residents the most, could not be reached for comment.
>
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