Fairfax to raise bus fares in January
By: Kaitlyn Funk
December 10, 2008
SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER — Bus fares in Fairfax County will rise starting Jan. 4, after the county Board of Supervisors approved the increase this week.
Base fare for Connector buses will increase from $1 to $1.35 for cash payments and $1.25 for those paying with a SmarTrip card. Express fare will increase by 10 cents for those who pay with cash.
The supervisors also approved the elimination of paper bus-to-bus transfers, following Metro’s lead, which will do away with them Jan. 4.
“It’s a cleaner, neater system,” Beth Price, marketing chief for the Fairfax County Department of Transportation, said of SmarTrip. The goal is to make it easier for people to transfer between the bus and rail.
Another change is a new, 50-cent discount for bus-to-rail transfers. Transfer times have increased from two hours to three hours and will be tracked by the SmarTrip system.
However, only SmarTrip cardholders will receive the rail-to-bus transfer rate, which will increase from 35 cents to 75 cents. Those who do not use SmarTrip will have to pay the full $1.35 fare when making a rail-to-bus transfer.
Fairfax County officials say the use of SmarTrip will help passengers board faster and will help routes run more smoothly. Collection and reporting of fare revenue will be more accurate, and the new system will make it impossible to use transfers past the designated three-hour limit.
“It should cut down on the abuse of the paper transfers,” Price said.
Fairfax officials say they will save money by eliminating the cost of printing paper transfers, but a projection of the funds saved isn’t available.
Metro officials say they expect to save about $5 million annually by eliminating the transit agency’s paper transfer system.
“There are a lot of people who pay by cash, so we’re starting an outreach campaign for people who weren’t interested in the program before. We’re going to be giving some cards out and working with human services agencies,” Price said. “But we don’t have an unlimited supply.”
