Leaders of both transit agencies said the fare increases were needed to solve budget challenges. The MTS hikes are projected to boost annual revenue $14.2 million, while the NCTD hikes would raise $1.2 million.<\/p>\n
The MTS board voted 7-4 to approve the fare increase package after a contentious public hearing Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Supporters said fare increases were preferable to the option of cutting transit service and were a necessary move to help MTS ease long-term financial challenges, including a projected $100 million annual deficit in fiscal 2030.<\/p>\n
Opponents said MTS shouldn\u2019t be balancing its budget on the backs of people who can least afford an increase. They also said MTS had not fully explored other possible ways to solve its financial problems, such as seeking more state aid, charging premium rates for special events and price-bundling with Padres tickets.<\/p>\n
San Diego City Councilmember Stephen Whitburn, chair of the MTS board, said the agency would have to make painfully deep cuts to service without a fare hike.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to vote to increase fares, but I don\u2019t want to vote to cut service \u2014 and it\u2019s one or the other,\u201d Whitburn said.<\/p>\n
![\"Passengers](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-SPRINTER-REPLACEMENT005.jpg\")
Passengers get on and off a Sprinter train at the Palomar College Station. (Charlie Neuman \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Whitburn said he was also persuaded by a survey of transit riders that showed they would rather pay a bit more than see transit service cut.<\/p>\n
\u201cGiven the choice between increasing fares or cutting their service, they would rather we increase fares because the service is that important to them,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd without the service, the fares don\u2019t matter much anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
But San Diego Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, who cast one of \u201cno\u201d votes on the board, called those arguments bogus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that survey is a mandate \u2014 I think it\u2019s a false choice,\u201d Elo-Rivera said. \u201cDid we ask them if they\u2019d rather pay more or have the wealthiest San Diegans pay their fair share?\u201d<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera said it\u2019s wrong to jack fares up on the most vulnerable San Diegans, some of whom wake early to clean office buildings, while high-paid workers in those offices commute on roads that are heavily subsidized by taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cA fare hike is a flat, regressive charge collected from the people who have the least ability to pay for that,\u201d Elo-Rivera said.<\/p>\n
Elo-Rivera was joined in opposition by San Diego Councilmember Henry Foster, National City Councilmember Marcus Bush and Chula Vista Councilmember Cesar Fernandez.<\/p>\n
The rest of the board said they didn\u2019t feel they had a real choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, there is no good option,\u201d Santee Councilmember Ronn Hall said. \u201cWe have to keep the doors open. We have to avoid bankruptcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coronado Councilmember Carrie Downey said her reasoning was based on how long it\u2019s been since the last increase, stressing that everyone must deal with inflation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t like to tell people \u2018you have to pay more money\u2019 \u2014 nobody does,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we have to do it. We haven\u2019t done it in one area in 17 years. The public has to understand that just like their costs went up, so have ours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Circulate San Diego, a transit advocacy group, said opting for service cuts instead of a fare hike would start a downward spiral.<\/p>\n
\u201cRaising fares is never ideal, but when we are forced to choose between raising fares and cutting service, we must make the tough choice to raise fares,\u201d said Aria Grossman, Circulate\u2019s policy manager. \u201cThe success of the system depends on people using it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders from other local nonprofits said the hike would fall hard on residents across the city but particularly in City Heights, where many residents can\u2019t afford cars.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/SUT-L-Del-Mar-Tracks-009.jpg\")
A Coaster train runs along the Del Mar bluffs on Tuesday, March 6, 2025. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
Later on Thursday, the NCTD board voted unanimously to approve the same fare package. NCTD faces deficits of more than $20 million in both fiscal 2029 and fiscal 2030.<\/p>\n
NCTD\u2019s package would also eliminate zoned fares on the Coaster commuter rail line. Those fares now charge passengers more for longer trips. Instead, all riders would start paying the same one-way fare, which would rise from $6.50 to $7 in fall 2027.<\/p>\n
In addition, a special monthly pass that can be used only on Sprinter trains and Breeze buses in North County would rise in price from $59 to $65 this fall and to $70 in fall 2027.<\/p>\n
The hikes for one-way fares would put the San Diego region at a higher price point than comparable transit agencies.<\/p>\n
One-way fares are currently $3 in Dallas and San Francisco, $2.80 in Portland, Ore., $2.75 in Denver and $2.50 in Sacramento and Salt Lake City.<\/p>\n
For both MTS and NCTD, the discounts for seniors, disabled passengers and those on Medicare would be phased. One-way fares would climb from $1.25 to $1.50 this fall and not increase in 2027. Monthly passes would rise from $23 to $28 this fall and then to $30 in fall 2027.<\/p>\n
MTS would leave popular discounts like fare-capping and two-hour free transfers in place. Fare-capping means passengers don\u2019t need to buy monthly passes, because the system automatically stops charging them one-way fares when their spending reaches the cost of a monthly pass.<\/p>\n
SANDAG\u2019s Transportation Committee is scheduled to consider the fare hike packages on May 15.<\/p>\n
An equity analysis must be completed, but officials said that\u2019s unlikely to be a problem because the fare hikes don\u2019t discriminate against any particular groups.<\/p>\n
The Transportation Committee could potentially take a final approval vote at its June 12 meeting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fares to ride local buses and trains would rise 30% under fare increase packages approved Thursday by the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,100,13,74,76,75,1696,1967],"class_list":{"0":"post-271749","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-politics","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news","15":"tag-top-stories-sdut","16":"tag-transportation"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}