On Wednesday, November 7, a public hearing was held to discuss an increase to all Metro fare items to address shortages in the City of Madison operating budget.

At the public hearing, it was also discussed that the $218,000 of revenue generated from this fare increase would fund a service expansion to the Owl Creek neighborhood as well as address scheduling and overcrowding problems on existing Metro routes.

After this public hearing, it was decided by the City of Madison Common Council not to move forward with this overall increase to Metro fares. As part of that decision, money was still allocated to fund additional service to the Owl Creek neighborhood, but the additional revenue to address scheduling and overcrowding on existing routes was removed.

At the Transit and Parking Commission meeting held on Wednesday, December 12, commission members discussed Metro's continued need to address these scheduling and overcrowding problems.

All commission members were in agreement that attempts should be made to keep Metro fares as low as possible, however, scheduling and overcrowding problems were still immediate issues of concern and needed to be addressed. These issues are currently affecting large numbers of passengers in terms of missing transfers or simply not being able to get on a bus due to it being too crowded.

As a result, TPC members made a decision to move forward with smaller targeted increases of select Metro fare items to fund extra service to address these overcrowding and scheduling problems.

The cost of the following items will increase starting Sunday, February 3.

31-Day Pass
Current: $55
New: $58

31-Day Senior/Disabled Pass
Current: $27.50
New: $29

Commute Card rate
Current: $1.15/ride
New: $1.25/ride

Paratransit Fare
Current: $3.00 offpeak; $4.00 peak
New: $3.25 (all rides)

These fare item adjustments are expected to generate approximately $60,000 that will be used to implement service expansions/improvements referenced in the public hearing held on November 7.

Those include:

• Extra service to address overcrowding of buses along the University Ave. corridor
• Extra service to address chronic scheduling issues between the South Transfer Point and West Transfer Point
• New service to the Owl Creek neighborhood

A separate public hearing will be held in March or April to discuss these proposed service additions in more detail.