BY KEN LEISER • kleiser@post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8215 | Posted: Friday, March 23, 2012 10:30 am
ST. LOUIS • Many St. Louis transit riders can expect to pay higher fares to ride MetroLink trains and buses.
The Metro transit agency on Friday released its $249.7 million operating budget for 2012-13. It calls for the agency’s first fare increase in more than three years.
Metro President and CEO John Nations said the size of the proposed fare increase is still being worked out. Transit agency financial officials said they are eyeing increases to weekly and monthly passes, which would take effect July 1.
Metro officials passed a pair of fare increases in 2008. The second was to take effect in mid-2010, but the agency postponed that increase for two years while the agency restored transit service and built its slumping ridership.
The agency would not rule out increasing the costs of the one-way fares, which are $2.25 for MetroLink and $2 for buses. But Nations cautioned that “Metro is concerned about raising the price of the single ticket” purchase.
While grappling with significant funding shortfalls, Metro dramatically slashed its bus, light-rail and Call-A-Ride service in March 2009. But the passage of the Proposition A sales tax in April 2010 allowed the agency to restore nearly all of the lost routes and service.
Opponents of the tax measure sought to defeat the measure by arguing Metro exercised poor financial stewardship — including cost overruns on the Forest Park-to-Shrewsbury MetroLink extension and the ill-fated lawsuit that followed it.
The latest proposed fare increases will be subject to public hearings in April.
“In connection with the service restoration and everything else, there were enough shocks to the system that we wanted to restore the service, bring our customers back and examine who is riding where and what the system looks like in 2012,” Nations said.
Nations said transit ridership increased 8.9 percent during the first six months of its current budget year, thanks in part to Cardinals’ World Series run in the fall. More recently, gasoline prices that have inched toward $4 a gallon.
The fare increase is expected to increase passenger revenue collections by $1.8 million. Metro recovers about 20 percent of its operating costs from passenger fares.
Sales tax collections, which make up a significant portion of Metro’s income, have been flat in recent years. But “we are seeing a little bit of an uptick in sales tax,” said Kathy Klevorn, Metro’s chief financial officer.
Metro’s board of commissioners is expected to vote on the 2012-13 budget on Friday, March 30.
Other highlights of the operating budget include:
- • Metro’s support from the state of Missouri is expected to remain at just under $200,000.
- • Metro forecast 45.6 million passenger boardings on MetroLink trains, buses and Call-A-Ride vans combined in the year beginning July 1. During the current 12-month period, boardings are expected to total 44.3 million.
- • The transit agency expects its pension expenses to increase by $1.5 million during the next budget year and its medical costs to increase $2.9 million.