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Higher commuter rail fares bound to hurt drive toward energy independence Date published: 11/2/2008
THIS ELECTION cycle, one of the hot topics has been energy independence. With so many facts and figures being batted around, you'd need a degree in economics to know who's telling the truth. One thing that's undeniable, though, is that our reliance on foreign oil has had a major impact on our economy, the hit to the wallets of commuters being just one of its serious consequences. I don't have a degree in economics, but it seems to me that one thing you can do to reduce dependence on foreign oil is to encourage commuters to use mass transit. That's why I was mildly surprised when I got home late one night last week, having missed my connecting train yet again, and saw on the front page of the newspaper: "VRE fares to rise by 7%." Am I the only one mystified by why the fares are skyrocketing when gas prices are plummeting? Does this make sense when we ought to be trying to get people off the roads? Just last summer they increased fares by 3 percent. That was unwelcome news, but at least understandable when fuel costs were breaking records. But now, when prices at the pump have fallen by more than a dollar a gallon in the past few weeks, why are we about to experience the largest fare increase in VRE's history, with another hike looming next summer? What's wrong with this picture? The article pointed out a number of pertinent facts and clues. VRE attributes the fare increase to rising fuel costs (which made sense till recently), high maintenance costs and a shortage in the reserve fund. VRE's own Web site acknowledged that its early budget estimates were off--ridership has been about 5 percent higher than projected, and fuel costs 7 percent lower, which is why they cut the planned increase from 15 percent to
While it is true that gas prices have fallen quickly, it is important to understand how public transportation is funded. VRE, like all other public transit, does not make money. Fares only account for a fraction of operating costs. Thus, it relies on funding from the federal government and local governments. How likely is it that Prince William County, for example, will raise taxes right now to increase funding for VRE? Or that it will sacrifice emergency services to keep VRE fares down?
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