Just months after raising rates, Sacramento Regional Transit is poised to do it again.
A tentative plan to hike some fares in September will pose a double blow to riders of the region's largest bus and rail service.
The agency had already announced plans to make cuts on as many as half its bus routes this September to reduce costs amid the worst budget crisis in its history.
That turned out not to be enough, officials said this week. So, RT will unveil proposed fare increases Monday that could affect as many as 40 percent of the system's passengers.
"This is, no question, the most difficult financial situation we've ever found ourselves in," RT General Manager Mike Wiley said. "It's almost like a never-ending story."
The agency's latest money woes are again tied to the state budget crisis and the down economy. With many state workers furloughed, fewer riders are buying monthly passes, opting instead to buy daily tickets and 10-ticket booklets, causing bus company revenues to drop.
To counter that, RT officials are looking at raising the basic ticket price from $2.25 to $2.50. All-day passes would go from $6 to $6.50. Ticket booklet prices also would go up.
The basic monthly pass will remain at $100. Student and senior stickers also would not increase.
Officials, however, say they are considering eliminating the agency's free pass for riders over age 75, or raising the age to 85.
RT Board Chairman Steve Cohn defended the move, saying there are few options.
"We don't print money, and we can't look to anybody else to save us," he said. "We feel like we already are bare bones."
The bus cuts and fare hikes should help close a $9 million deficit, officials said. The agency also will continue salary and hiring freezes, and reduce service contracts.
The news of potential fare hikes along with bus cuts came as a jolt to riders.
North Sacramento's Jennifer McSweeney, who is disabled, already has seen her monthly government assistance dwindle.
"We get less money, less service, and we have to pay more," she said. "It just doesn't go together."
Celina Hermann, a mother of five at the Mather Community Campus, may lose her weekend bus, No. 75, which she uses for doctor and dentist appointments.
"We need that bus," she said. "My kids' little legs can't make it up that hill to light rail."
If the No. 83 bus is eliminated weekdays, Yvonne Lunsford, a medical facility receptionist, figures she'll have to take two buses with long walks in between to get to work.
"It's like the buses are just disappearing from the neighborhoods," she lamented.
Barbara Stanton of RiderShip for the Masses said she wonders if RT has done enough scrubbing of their staffing and contract costs.
"They say they are doing everything they can internally, but I don't know," she said.
RT head Wiley said agency staff is down to 1,060 from an allotted 1,200, and will drop to 1,000 next year.
He said he believes drastic cuts are temporary.
"There is a pent-up demand and a desire for service to be much greater than it is," Wiley said. But, for now, "it's about weathering the storm."
The RT board will hold a budget hearing at 6 p.m. Monday at the agency's 29th Street headquarters. A second public discussion is set for June 22.
Call The Bee's Tony Bizjak, (916) 321-1059.
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