Portland's Tri-Met Proposes To Eliminate Free Rail Zone

[fairviewroad]

Lots of cuts proposed today by the cash-strapped transit agency that serves Portland, OR and surrounding suburbs. The most relevant points to this message board:

1. The elimination of the downtown free rail zone. For Amtrak riders, the recently opened service in front of Union Station meant that incoming passengers could easily get downtown without a ticket. The "easy" part is still there, but now it will cost you $2.50 under the proposed plan.

2. The Red Line, which serves the Portland Airport, would be truncated to only go from the airport to downtown Portland, instead of continuing to Beaverton. This will only affect people who wanted a one-seat ride from Beaverton to/from the airport. Otherwise, that section of the Red Line duplicates existing (albeit frequently crowded) service on the Blue Line. It also means that passengers using the WES commuter rail will have to make two connections to get from WES to the airport.

3. Off-peak headways on most MAX routes will be reduced to every 20 minutes. Currently most off-peak service operates every 15 minutes.

More details here.

 

[trainman74]

1. The elimination of the downtown free rail zone. For Amtrak riders, the recently opened service in front of Union Station meant that incoming passengers could easily get downtown without a ticket. The "easy" part is still there, but now it will cost you $2.50 under the proposed plan.

If I recall correctly, it wasn't too long ago that the buses were free within the downtown "Fareless Square," but not the light rail.

 

[AlanB]

1. The elimination of the downtown free rail zone. For Amtrak riders, the recently opened service in front of Union Station meant that incoming passengers could easily get downtown without a ticket. The "easy" part is still there, but now it will cost you $2.50 under the proposed plan.

If I recall correctly, it wasn't too long ago that the buses were free within the downtown "Fareless Square," but not the light rail.

You recall semi-correctly; both buses and light rail were free within fareless square.

The bus option was undone about 2 years ago or so, IIRC. It was undone in part as a way to increase revenues, but also because it caused problems and created confusion for many first time riders. Because of the free zone, people inbound on a bus would pay upon boarding. But once you reached fareless square all fare collection stopped. So on the outbound run you had to pay to get off the bus. And all too often people didn't have the correct fare available, or worse if you were riding through fareless square on the same bus, it created confusion as the driver would of course want you to pay to get off, even though you had paid to get on prior to reaching fareless square.

 

[the_traveler]

I think you're right Alan. The buses downtown used to be free also. They changed it just after I was last there, and I didn't go to PDX last year!

So I think it was 2 years ago.

 

[trainman74]

You recall semi-correctly; both buses and light rail were free within fareless square.

Whoops, I might have been thinking of Seattle. All those cities in the Northwest look the same to me.

 

[fairviewroad]

You have about a week left to take a free ride on Portland's light rail system. The downtown "Free Rail Zone" is going away

on September 1st.

http://trimet.org/alerts/farechanges.htm#frz

 

[Trogdor]

On a side note, Seattle's free ride area is also going away next month.

 

[the_traveler]

I'm cheap, but I can live with the elimination and increase.

 

[DET63]

The problem with free transit areas is that they make fare evasion much easier to commit. If you ride, you should pay.

 

[Anderson]

With some oddball exceptions, I'm not a fan of free zones in principle. If they're strictly acting as a circulator in an area, that's fine, but free zones are a mixed bag at best.

 

[sechs]

The problem with free transit areas is that they make fare evasion much easier to commit. If you ride, you should pay.

How does it make fare evasion easier?

 

[Eric S]

Assuming a POP fare system, if there is a free-fare zone between Station 4 and Station 6, wouldn't fare enforcement checks just occur between Station 1 and Station 4, not between Station 4 and Station 6, and occur again between Station 6 and Station 10 (end station)? Not sure I see how the free-fare zone makes fare evasion easier.

Now, if there is a PAYE fare system, as typically occurs on buses, I can see fare evasion perhaps being easier to commit.

 

[DET63]

TriMet was a PAYE system, at least after the POP experiment in the early '80s was discontinued. This meant you did not show POP as you boarded in Fareless Square, but you did show it, even on an outbound bus (light rail remained random POP), outside of the free-fare zone. On a crowded outbound bus, how could the driver be sure that a disembarking passenger had paid upon boarding, had boarded with a transfer in Fareless Square, had boarded the same bus outside of Fareless Square while inbound from across town (many lines through-routed, with the same number assigned to two routes serving opposite sides of town, etc.?

 

[sechs]

Doesn't pay-enter inbound and pay-exit outbound solve these problems? Transfers or fare receipts would allow passengers to ride through the free zone.

Then again, a simple electronic fare collection system could keep track of all of this....