Downtown Fare Zone: Quick Boost for Metro Rail's Utility

this is a really good idea. i live in Luma and walking to the 7th st station is a schlep, but doubling my fare for taking the blue line just one stop is not cost effective. i bet metro would benefit from a lot more Staples Center ridership ()not to mention "South residents" if you could take the blue line that one stop to the red line.

Actually, I think your assumption that revenue will suffer is unfounded. I think the reverse is true. The simplicity will drive up system useage and ultimately drive up revenue.

L.A. should do what the city of Portland, OR did: fare within the downtown zone is free. On the streetcar, light rail lines, and buses. It makes the downtown area very visitor friendly.

YES, YES, YES, YES and YES! How about $1.25 for two hours unlimited travel within the zone? Should go great for the Langers/Philippes lunchtime crowd.

Honestly, I had no idea that a new/transfer ticket was necessary between lines. I always thought that as long as you were headed away from the location on your ticket you were fine. I take the Red Line from MacArthur Park to Union Station and get on the Gold Line down to Pasadena every weekend, using the one ticket I got at MacArthur Park. In fact, inspectors have checked my tickets several times, and they never even bat an eye.

Great Idea, I just don't know if the MTA would go for it. If the MTA doesn't like this idea, maybe they will allow the transfer within the downtown area. This way we will on only pay an extra 25 cents instead of the 1.25.

I think this idea illustrates well the reason our system does not make sense. We have 1/2 of system. It partly goes where you want, but not really. No park and ride. DASHES that stop at 6 PM.Evening service endng at midnight. Entertainment zones and convention centers that are not connected. No easy connection from heavy rail to light rail. (Try a Union Station red car transfer to Gold Line) or go from Historic Core to Staples. How about a Greyhound bus station that is 1/2 mile from any real mass transit? The airport connections speak for themselves.

Portland's trolley system is easy, clean, quiet, safe and FREE in all of downtown. I am sure some will howl, but how about a downtown-wide pass or easy (or included) transfer that really connects folks downtown. I had to pay $38 for 2.5 hours (self park to boot) at the Omni Hotel for a meeting that I was running late for. I would gladly pay $20 a month or so if we had a system that got us all around downtown.

Imagine morning work in Financial District, lunch at Little Tokyo, groceies at Farmer's Market at Santee Village, a dinner/sports/concerts/ and late night drinks at LA Live all on a pass. What a rich day. Now imagine the present system of moving your car and paying 5 parking fees, and the headache and traffic.

No matter how you get downtown, once you are here, you should be able to get around without needing (or wanting) to move your car.

Portland is even building trolleys BEFORE the neighborhood and planning whole urban villages with that as the foundation. What could that do to a new Artist District/ LA River park neighborhood with some density and open space.

I agree the Union Station Gold to Red transfer is horrible, however, the connections at 7th Street Metro & Imperial station are not bad at all. When in London, we had to walk 1/4 mile underground to tranfer from 1 heavy rail line to another, that was the absolutly worst connection, ever.

I don't forsee a "free fare" zone ever happening in downtown. It's like saying, "why doesn't Chicago or New York do free fares?". The MTA is in a huge financial hole, thus the reason for the fare increase. And with Ahnold taking more away from public transit ($1.3 billion, remember?), the chance for free fare is slim and none. This is consistent with Foothill & Santa Monica doing fare increases.

And also, if you really use the Gold, Red, and Blue Lines that much then you really should just consider getting a monthly pass; especially if you live in Downtown. Most people who use the system frequently enough to buy the monthly pass never have to deal with transfer hassles. And besides just getting you around Downtown on Metro, it can take you out of Downtown as well. Far more useful I think.

So then technically I'd have to get a one way at Wilshire/ Western and then another at Wilshire/ Vermont if I wanted to go to Hollywood? Because they are considered two separate lines and they're going in different directions. Seems pretty ridiculous to me. Metro should update their standards. Before the far hike it pretty much always made sense to just buy a day pass but now it makes more sense sometimes to get oneways.

Why are we the only major city that doesn't do transfers? I was just in Vancouver and you could transfer with your one way ticket once for an hour and a half after you originally bought you ticket

It's downright ridiculous that you can't transfer between lines on a one-way ticket to begin with. Anyone who has a car has NO incentive to ride the metro across town with this fare structure, even during rush hour. Furthermore, the transfer policy is labeled nowhere at actual stations, and an inadvertent transfer can net you a fine of $500 for nothing less than suffering from a complicated, draconian policy.

The cost of a single-ride should apply to ALL rail lines within a two-hour period. That's even easier to implement than a Downtown Fare Zone and would cost less - it'd also make the MTA more appealing to people who actually want to take trains.

After all, I'm unemployed, poor, and love the metro, and it's still cheaper for me to drive due to this ridiculous fare structure.

Eric: I'm leaning heavily towards ignorance. I think if it were kindness, they probably would have explained, "Hey, you need to get a new ticket, but we'll let you slide this time."

Anyway, I don't understand why they wouldn't just charge by distance. I think I'll continue to purchase only one ticket, and if they ever question me, I'll plead ignorance.

Many Metro areas like Portland and Salt Lake City have free fare zones. And it's made a big difference in congestion rush hour congestion. Transportation will always be subsidized. The Dash Bus runs service everyday in Downtown. Their costs are no doubt rising with gas prices.... yet they still charge 25 cents a ride. Perhaps Metro can take a page from the Dash Bus, not to charge Downtown workers $2.50 in fares just to grab lunch a few blocks away. I love the Matzo soup at Langers.

DASH's days are numbered and it has little to do with the cost of fuel and everything to do with the increasing costs of maintain a fully subsidized fleet of buses that needs replaced in the coming years. (Does anyone really think those $.25 fares amount to anything? I suspect more money is spent accounting for the fare box than comes out of it.)

Union Station to Metro Center should be free. And like NYC's subway, once you have paid once, you can go anywhere until you exit the system regardless of the number of lines crossed.

In simple terms, until parking costs, fuel costs and traffic congestion force single-passenger car users to change their behavior, little will happen in Los Angeles to move people to mass transit. Why? Because for the better part of the second half of the 20th century mass transit was viewed as declasse.

It's no wonder that the bulk of current mass transit users either have no choice economically, are ideologically driven or are from out of town and don't know the faux pas they are committing.

Maybe MTA should start paying celebrities to ride Metro? That's about the only thing that will change the minds of generations of middle-class Angelenos who avoid mass transit as if it were a toxic substance and it will be much cheaper than building a Downtown connector stop at Flower and Third.