RailRunner Existence In Question

[Anderson]

Do I understand that a day pass is the same as a one-way fare? That is simply nuts. A day pass equal to twice the one way fare is the Caltrain practice, and is fairly reasonable. Caltrain does not do round trip tickets. Given the difference in locations, I would not consider a Railrunner fare around half those in the New York area to be excessively low.

Well if one buys the day pass in advance, then yes, it is the same cost as a one way ticket for all 6 zones. If you buy it on the day of travel, then the day pass costs a whole buck more than the one way fare. :lol:

So for our group, we'll ride from ABQ to Santa Fe, have lunch, ride all the way to Belen, and then ride back to ABQ; all for $10 each.

And while perhaps comparing to NY isn't exactly fair, they are still under priced by comparison to say Salt Lake City. They charge $5.10 to go about 40 miles on their commuter rail system; so in theory when the extension south opens soon, they'll be charging at least $10.20 to go about 86 miles. RailRunner is charging $10 to go close to 97 miles. Granted few people probably ride the entire line from one end to the other, most are riding to either Santa Fe or Albuquerque.

The Tide in Norfolk seems to have a bit of this as an issue: A day pass is the same as two one-way $1.50 tickets...but it covers the whole system (i.e. buses, ferries, etc.). I know they're trying to encourage bus/rail intermodal trips, but as far as I can tell that much isn't working...they're just getting lots of park-and-ride folks who have a relatively useless access card to the bus system in the process (and likely "losing" a lot of revenue from the light rail in the process). I've also seen no indication that an extension to the beachfront would involve any "zones", either.

This seems like a bit of an issue with transit systems in general: There's a tendency to hand out all-encompassing passes to try and "buy" ridership with lots of (arguably useless) access for folks.

 

[Train2104]

The one way fares on RailRunner are perfectly reasonable given the location. They should eliminate the day pass, raise the monthly to 20x the one way fare, and the annual to 11 months. Online discount the monthly to 17x and the annual to 10 months.

 

[Nathanael]

As has been noted before, RailRunner was specifically intended to deal with future congestion on I-25, which cannot be widened due to pueblo opposition.

The economic downturn means that the congestion on I-25 hasn't actually appeared yet.

 

[gswager]

As has been noted before, RailRunner was specifically intended to deal with future congestion on I-25, which cannot be widened due to pueblo opposition.

The economic downturn means that the congestion on I-25 hasn't actually appeared yet.

Make that plural "pueblos". There 4 pueblos between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and 1 to the south which RailRunner and I-25 pass through.