Planned public hearings on the proposed fares this month, including one at the Anoka County Government Center Oct. 15, have been canceled.
That’s because the Metropolitan Council last week directed that another look be taken at the fares.
The council has instructed its staff to reopen discussions with the Northstar Corridor Development Authority (NCDA) and others to re-examine the fare levels.
Council members said the proposed fares were too low.
Is anyone surprised, low-ball it going in, kite it up to reality once key thresholds have been reached. It is as old as Solomon, who probably low-balled his temple costs.
However, here is what really hits home.
The council’s Transportation Committee had recommended approval of the proposed fares, which had been developed over the summer by a joint committee comprising representatives from Anoka, Hennepin and Sherburne counties, the NCDA and Metro Transit.
The fares were set in a tier system, based on distance away from downtown Minneapolis.
The proposed weekday, one-way cash fares to downtown Minneapolis from the five stations expected to be open by late 2009 were:
• Big Lake, $7.50.
• Elk River, $5.50.
• Anoka, $4.
• Coon Rapids, $4.
• Fridley, $3.25.
For customers not traveling to downtown, the proposed fare would be $3.25 between stations.
In canceling the public hearings for public comment on the proposed fares, Metropolitan Council members believed that riders should pay a larger percentage of the commuter rail line’s annual operating cost, according to Bonnie Kollodge, Metropolitan Council spokeswoman.
The proposed fares would cover between 18 percent and 24 percent of the projected operating cost in 2010, which will be Northstar’s first full year of service, Kollodge said. [In case you're not good on arithmetic, that's taxpayers paying 4/5ths to 3/4ths of what the thing costs - they would not completely be "free riders" but they will be more so than not.]
For other bus and train service in the Twin Cities area, customers pay about 35 percent of the annual operating costs, she said.
In proposing the fares, the NCDA and others members of the joint committee used “very conservative” ridership figures, according to Tim Yantos, executive director of both the NCDA and the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority.
The ridership was based on Federal Transit Administration (FTA) estimates, Yantos said.
“We have done surveys which show how much people are willing to pay for commuter rail fares, but we don’t know how conservative the FTA ridership numbers are,” he said.
“It is a question of striking a balance.”
No Tim, it is a relative question, how much to hose taxpayers by subsidizing ridership; how much to hose riders in fares beyond things said in promoting the thing - what relative burdens are going to be socialized instead of kept to the enterprise to justify itself or fail. That's what it is. ACU continues:
The NCDA had its monthly meeting yesterday (Thursday, Oct. 2), but that was too soon after the Metropolitan Council decision for any action on new fares to be taken.
But Yantos hopes the fares can be in place in the next 60 to 90 days to give people time to plan for the start of the system.
According to Kollodge, Metropolitan Council staff are considering how many riders would be attracted, or not, relative to the fare level and how these factors would impact overall revenue.
Staff members from Metro Transit, the three counties and NCDA partners will be analyzing the variables early this month before outlining a schedule for additional policy maker and public input steps, Kollodge said.
Operating costs for the Northstar Commuter Rail system will be split 50-50 between the Metropolitan Council and the newly created CTIB (County Transit Improvement Board).
Five counties (Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey and Washington) comprise CTIB, which was established earlier this year to administer the new quarter-cent sales tax approved by the Minnesota Legislature in 2008 over Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto to help fund transit projects in those counties.
That tax, on which collections began July 1, and a $20 fee on new- and used-car sales, is projected to bring in some $95 million over the next 12 months.
For the first full year of Northstar operations in 2010, the operating cost is estimated at $17 million, Yantos said.
That includes a one-time insurance fee, which won’t be part of Northstar operating expenses beyond 2010, he said.
By state law, no county tax dollars can be used for operating costs of the commuter rail system, according to Yantos.
That’s why the proposed tax levy for the Anoka County Regional Rail Authority in 2009 is almost 50 percent less than 2008, Yantos said.
So, even if you decide the turkey is what it is, and buy a hybrid to commute, that tax "on new- and used-car sales," has you paying, for others to take a ride.
Everybody gets taken for a ride that way.
And Yantos talks only "operating cost" which, he's a bureaucrat after all, probably excludes debt service cost, even though without the debt there'd be nothing to operate - and operating costs cannot be lower than that.
And your federal government just got through bailing out Wall Street, for you. Enjoy. Wave one of those tiny American flags, Made in China.