Bus fares in Whatcom County will increase next fall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Whatcom Transportation Authority\u2019s board approved the increases on Thursday, Dec. 11 in a 6-2 vote, with Bellingham Mayor Kim Lund and Whatcom County Councilmember Todd Donovan voting against. The fare increases will double fixed route bus fares from $1 to $2, and increase paratransit fares from $1 to $3. The proposal also introduced a fare capping system, with a daily fare cap of $6, and a monthly fare cap of $60.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new fares will go into effect in on Sept. 1, 2026. It\u2019s the WTA\u2019s first fixed route fare increase since 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Other changes include the elimination of the Gold Card, which provided free fares to seniors over 75, and the expansion of the reduced fare program. Now, people 65+, paratransit eligible, veterans, those who meet disability or income-based requirements, and students will be eligible for half-price rides.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The WTA received more than 900 comments on the fare increases, most of them expressing concern for low-income, disabled and elderly riders.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Les Reardanz, WTA\u2019s general manager, told a packed board room on Thursday that the transit authority has to close a growing gap between operating expenses and operating revenues.<\/p>\n
The WTA already reduced discretionary spending by close to 20%, but it is trying to avoid significant reductions in service, Reardanz explained. He said the WTA doesn\u2019t have a lot of options when it comes to raising revenue: contrary to some suggestions from public commenters, the WTA can\u2019t raise property taxes, tax parking or raise car tabs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Increasing sales tax is one avenue, but that would have to go to the voters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese decisions are never popular, never fun, but we owe a fiduciary duty to this organization into this community, try to run the best service that that we can,\u201d Reardanz said. \u201cWe have to look out into the future to be able to do this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Audra Stiles, grants and revenues manager at WTA, provided some additional context on the elimination of the Gold Card, a move that riled many seniors. She said many people use it to get free paratransit fares. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat has ended up happening is that a third of our rides \u2013 and growing \u2013 on paratransit are completely free,\u201d Stiles said. Paratransit costs the WTA about $96 a ride. With increases in ridership, having free riders is unsustainable, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dan Darwin, the non-voting labor representative on the board, urged members to listen to public comment and vote against the increases.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard from many of the operators out in the field who drive\u00a0these paratransit routes,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of these riders are scared of what\u2019s going to happen for them.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Lund proposed an amendment to bring the daily fare cap down to $3, to make it more affordable for less frequent riders. But Stiles said a $3 fare cap would also apply to paratransit riders, and they could hit the cap after just one ride. She said they don\u2019t know the \u201cdownstream effects\u201d of that, given that paratransit services are already \u201cat capacity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The amendment failed with four opposed and three in favor.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahead of the final vote, Donovan urged the WTA to seek out a sales tax increase. But other board members, mainly from other areas of the county, spoke against the suggestion.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us out in Everson, in Nooksack and Sumas, who are getting a small bit of service, to ask us to pay more to subsidize riders is not where I would go at this point,\u201d said board member Jen Lautenbach.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Western and WTA to continue discussions<\/p>\n
More than 100 Western Washington University students<\/a> also showed up to recent public hearings after news broke that\u00a0WTA doesn\u2019t plan to renew<\/a>\u00a0its existing $600,000 per year contract with Western Washington University to provide unlimited fares to students and staff. Students contribute to this through a $33 transportation fee assessed quarterly. The contract expires in September 2026.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The WTA is still open to negotiating a new contract with Western, said Maureen McCarthy, WTA\u2019s director of communications and government relations, last week. But WTA won\u2019t continue with the contract as it is currently written.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n Western and WTA are likely set to begin discussions about a potential new contract this week, said Joyce Lopes, Western\u2019s vice-president of business and financial affairs in an update to students.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAs with any complex negotiation, the timeline is uncertain,\u201d Lopes said. \u201cThere is no set end date for these discussions. Talks may continue into\u00a0Winter and Spring quarters, but both Western and WTA remain\u00a0committed to meeting regularly and making steady progress.\u201d<\/p>\n Charlotte Alden<\/a> is CDN\u2019s general assignment\/enterprise reporter; reach her at charlottealden@cascadiadaily.com<\/a>; 360-922-3090 ext. 123.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bus fares in Whatcom County will increase next fall.\u00a0 Whatcom Transportation Authority\u2019s board approved the increases on Thursday,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343738,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-343737","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343737","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343737"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343737\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343737"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343737"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343737"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}