“And I think that’s so important to maintaining our riders, especially when they’ve had a frustrating experience with BART service.”īART officials and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission - the Bay Area’s transportation coordination and financing agency - are currently determining whether the grace period could be implemented with the current Clipper fare system. “We end up losing a little bit of money, but it’s money we shouldn’t have had in the first place and it makes the riders feel a lot better,” BART board president Rebecca Saltzman said. While only about 1 percent of BART customers pay the excursion fee, 80 percent of excursion fare riders exited the transit system within 30 minutes of entering during the 2021-2022 fiscal year.Īccording to BART’s assistant general manager for performance and budget Pamela Herhold, the new policy would have reduced BART’s fare revenue by $1.3 million during the 2022 fiscal year. The policy approved Thursday by BART’s Board of Directors would offer a 30-minute grace period for the fee. While BART offers ways for riders to seek a refund or reimbursement for the fee, like asking a station agent to submit paperwork for a refund or seeking reimbursement through Clipper, BART officials argued the current process is “cumbersome.” The fare is charged regardless of whether a person rides a BART train or enters and exits a BART station within a short period of time. The $6.40 “excursion fare” has been part of BART’s fare structure since the 1970s and is intended to prevent some forms of fare evasion and abuses of parking and charges a fare for BART riders who only want to experience the transit system without traveling to a destination. BART’s governing board voted unanimously Thursday to grant a short-term grace period for the system’s fare for trips that begin and end at the same station.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |