Fare Hike Confusion – Bait and Switch?

MetroAccess riders appear to have been subject to a mailshot over the past week, with postcards arriving to explain the new fares.  This explanatory blurb was on the cards:

In the meantime, MetroAccess will be upgrading its trip scheduling system to prepare for the second phase to be implemented this fall, in which fares will be based on twice the cost of the equivalent trip taken on Metrobus or Metrorail with a $7 maximum.  When this change is made, MetroAccess will no longer serve locations that are more than 3/4 mile from existing regional bus and rail services.  Existing users of MetroAccess who have traveled outside this boundary within the past year will be the only exception.

Sounds pretty simple doesn’t it?

Ummm, not quite.

First of all, we have no way of determining which one of the two fixed-route systems Trapeze will be configured to use for comparison – Metrobus or Metrorail (or a combination of both).  In fact, we don’t even know if they’re going to use Trapeze or if they’re going to use WMATA‘s own fare calculator.

Likewise, we aren’t being told if the fares will be calculated based on the full-price of a comparable fixed-route transit trip, or if it will be calculated according to the Disabled/Elderly discounted fare structure.  And there has been no mention at any point if riders will be given a price for their trip at time of booking so they can decide if they can afford to make the trip or not, or how much to have with them.

But the most glaring issue is this little gem that was snuck into the postcards:

Existing users of MetroAccess who have traveled outside this boundary within the past year will be the only exception

Whoa there WMATA! – when did this become a condition?  During the public meeting on Conditional Eligibility, the question of people who were outside the 3/4 mile limit being proposed was raised, and the only comment was that existing riders wouldn’t be subject to the 3/4 mile limit – not a word about this new wrinkle of “traveled outside this boundary within the past year”.

In fact, a quick look through our email archives shows this from the Metro ADA News email list, sent out only yesterday:

In the meantime, MetroAccess will be upgrading its trip scheduling system to prepare for the second phase to be implemented this fall. Beginning then, fares will be based on twice the cost of the equivalent trip taken on Metrobus or Metrorail with a $7 maximum. When this change is made, MetroAccess will no longer serve locations that are more than ¾ mile from existing regional bus and rail services. Existing users of MetroAccess who travel outside this boundary will be the only exception.

Almost a word-for-word match to the postcard mailshot with one glaring exception – not a single mention of this “within the past year” condition.

So, WMATA’s own ADA news email doesn’t include the condition, sent out almost a week after the postcards mentioning the condition were – so which is it?  We find the timing of the condition on the postcards, if true, to be rather underhanded, since it comes at a time when neither the Rider’s Advisory Council nor the Elderly and Disabled Committee (E&DC) will have time to question WMATA on this before it goes before the Board for final approval.

This condition was not only not mentioned during the public meeting regarding Conditional Eligibility, but the answers given at that meeting regarding the 3/4 mile limit didn’t even hint that there would be conditions applied to the grandfathering in of existing MetroAccess riders being exempted from the 3/4 mile limit.

It’s our position that WMATA needs to clarify both the grandfathering issue, but more especially the actual calculation method that will be used for fares, and do it fast before the fare hike for MetroAccess goes before the Board for final approval, else MetroAccess riders are at risk of facing a completely unknown (and unknowable), black-boxed fare structure that we can neither calculate accurately, nor discuss properly.

Anything else and MetroAccess riders will be at risk of facing the dreaded MetroAccess Magic 8-Ball not only for our pick-up and arrival times, but now (to WMATA’s benefit), the fares we’ll have to pay as well.

WMATA needs to clarify soonest:

• The process by which decisions will be made as to which fixed-route transit method a MetroAccess trip’s fares will be compared against – Metrobus, Metrorail, or both
• Whether fare calculations will be made by the equivalent to the “normal” fare, the “peak of the peak” fare, or the disabled/elderly discounted fare equivalent.
• Whether riders will be given notice at booking of the fare the booked trip will incur.
• Make their minds up about the stealth introduction of the new 3/4 mile condition, and explain why they can’t get their stories straight.

It’s near impossible for us to consider these actions by WMATA as anything other than a bait-and-switch perpetrated on the MetroAccess ridership.

We fully expect riders across the board to suddenly discover all their fares rise above $5.50, with no way for us to verify the accuracy of those fares because WMATA is not being even remotely transparent in detailing its methodology for calculating those fares.

Likewise, the stealth-introduction of a new conditional eligibility factor that not only is unmentioned in WMATA’s own ADA newsletter, but went completely unmentioned in the public discussion on Conditional Eligibility and media reports regarding the reduction in service.  The community was led to believe, by direct answers, that those living outside the 3/4 mile limit would be grandfathered in – something that WMATA is now directly contradicting.

We believe we have 3 days or so before the Board votes on this – and we do not believe the short amount of time left to get answers from WMATA about these issues was unintentional.  That alone should be raising red flags in people’s minds – what else are they doing that requires them to reduce the time available for the community to challenge it?

Now we are left wondering, what does WMATA have in mind for the fixed-route ridership as well with their side of the fare hikes?

Updated 06/24/2010 @ 3pm:

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