As Maryland struggles with
traffic congestion, rising gas prices and air pollution, expanding and
improving public transportation plays a key role in developing a 21st
century transportation for the state. Unfortunately, current law impedes the Maryland
Transit Administration from being able to adjust to the challenges of the 21st
Century. This bill aims to fix that.
This legislation repeals the
requirement in current law that the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA)
recover 40 percent of its operating costs for the bus, light rail, and Metro
subway services in the Baltimore
region from farebox revenue. It also repeals MTA’s 50 percent cost recovery
requirement for MARC commuter rail service, and requires MTA to continue to
report annually to the General Assembly on its performance regarding operating
expenses per revenue vehicle mile, operating expenses per passenger trip, and
passenger trips per revenue vehicle mile
If no legislative action is taken during the 2008 Session,
MTA’s farebox recovery requirement for all modes will revert back to 50
percent. Unfortunately, the farebox recovery requirements imposed by current
law often drive MTA’s planning process and act as disincentives to implement
services that would otherwise have beneficial impact for the traveling public,
the environment, and the economy.
One example is neighborhood shuttles in Baltimore—there
is demand for them in growing areas such as Harbor East, Arbutus/Halethorpe,
and Towson but
they traditionally have low farebox recovery rates, thus are relegated to law
priority for the agency.
Farebox recovery is simply a
measure of the ratio of fares collected to operating costs. It is a purely
financial measurement that has no link to the operational efficiency or
effectiveness of the service. In fact,
none of MTA’s peer systems has legally-mandated farebox recovery level.
MTA last met the 40 percent
farebox recovery goal in FY 2001. Since 2002, farebox revenue has declined
while operating expenses have increased almost six percent. As ridership has
declined, revenue has declined and service has decreased. A significant drop in ridership on all Baltimore
Core Services occurred in fiscal 2004 primarily due to a fare increase.
Compliance with 40% farebox
recovery can only be met through increasing fares or cutting service. In fact, Baltimore
Core Service fares would have to be increased 38 percent to meet the
requirement. This would increase the current one-way adult fare from $1.60 to
$2.20--the second-highest bus fare of all those charged by the 30 largest
transit systems in America.
At this fare level, the MTA estimates a loss in excess of 9 million current
riders per year.
Public transportation offers
significant benefits to the region and the aggressive farebox recovery mandate
threatens the region’s ability to offer affordable, reliable public
transportation to all sectors of society.
We urge a favorable report on HB 1185.
