The AJC reports that MARTA’s one-way fare will rise 50 cents to $2.50 starting October 1st.

Is raising fares on the tail-end of a recession a risky proposition?  Long-time transportation reporter Maria Saporta thinks so.  But In a response to that May post pointing to the negative effects of a fare increase (i.e. lower ridership), MARTA Chairman Jim Durrett revealed some of the thinking behind this second fare increase in two years…

All signals are that we will not receive as much support in the future from the federal government, we receive no operational support from the State of GA (and never have), and we should not base our decisions today on a future referendum.

We must seek to better diversify our revenue sources, and that includes charging user fees that are higher, but in line with our peer systems, finding other sources of income, controlling our costs, and enhancing the quality of the transit experience. We do this will full recognition of the condition of the economic and social environment in which we operate, and we hope to make a decision that best balances our desire to operate a sustainable transit system and the capacity of the public to pay for the service.

In other MARTA related news: The #2 bus service has returned to Decatur as of this Monday!

I’m sure many of you have seen the stories floating around the interwebs about a MARTA proposal to raise the $2 one-way fare by 25% to $2.50 sometime in the coming year.  But here’s the only really in-depth conversation I’ve yet seen on the topic: an interview between WABE’s Dennis O’Hare and MARTA’s new chairman Jim Durrett.

In it, O’Hare challenges Durrett’s call for higher fares by referencing MARTA’s oft-stated point that it’s one of the most cost-effective systems in the country, Durrett admits that MARTA must transition to variable fares (based on time of day, distance, etc) and plans on doing so by 2016, and also mentions increased costs for para-transit down the road.

On the 2016 date for variable fare, Durrett says

“…all of our partners that have been working on delivering transit in this region agree that we need to evolve to a variable-based fare.  Whether it’s the time of day that you’re traveling or how far that you’re traveling.  Right now our plans are to implement that kind of a system in the year 2016 or the fiscal year 2016.  It takes that long to analyze the system, to determine what the appropriate fares are, to change all of the hardware that we’ve got in place right now, in order for us to have that kind of a fare model. We’re working toward it with our partners and I believe that we will see that in 5 years.”

All of this talk of MARTA fiscal future and I don’t think Durrett once brought up the lack of state funding!  A new public tactic?

Interesting stuff.  Thanks to Al for forwarding the link!