Muni plans to raise fares 50 cents in July TRANSPORTATION 50-cent boost is largest in nearly a century

Commuters leave and board a MUNI train at the Van Ness Street station in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, February 20, 2009. Attempts to get more people out of their cars have fallen short, despite strong arguments from advocates who say alternatives to driving are good for the environment. less Commuters leave and board a MUNI train at the Van Ness Street station in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, February 20, 2009. Attempts to get more people out of their cars have fallen short, despite strong ... more Photo: Hardy Wilson, The Chronicle Photo: Hardy Wilson, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Muni plans to raise fares 50 cents in July 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

The San Francisco Municipal Railway on Thursday became the latest Bay Area transit agency to use fare increases and service cuts to plug a ballooning budget deficit.

However, these measures could counteract successful efforts over the past year to lure more people out of their cars.

Barring unprecedented intervention by the Board of Supervisors, the basic adult bus and streetcar fare will jump to $2 July 1, a 50-cent increase and the largest one-time raise in nearly a century. Discounted cash fares for seniors, the disabled and youths also will go up, as will the cost of monthly transit passes.

The board also approved sweeping service cuts that will affect about half the system's 80 lines by reducing service hours and truncating some lines. Eight bus routes were discontinued: The 4-Sutter, 7-Haight, 16-Noriega morning express, 20-Columbus, 26-Valencia, 53-Southern Heights, 74X-Culture bus and the 89-Laguna Honda. Dozens of other lines will have their routes modified or hours cut back.

Some of the service changes that generated the most public opposition in the end were rejected. One of those ideas, auctioning taxi permits or medallions, was put off until a more specific plan could be crafted and debated in public.

The changes allowed the agency's governing board to close a $129 million shortfall and adopt a $784 million operating budget for the new fiscal year, which starts July 1.

Muni chief Nathaniel Ford called the fiscal situation the most "dire in more than a generation, and it is forcing policymakers ... to grapple with extremely difficult decisions that will, most assured, affect many, many people."

It's a scenario being played out nationwide as transit agencies have been hit hard by the gasping economy. Dozens of operators have enacted or are considering service reductions, higher fares, job cuts or a combination of those measures to balance their budgets.

Raises by other agencies

In the Bay Area, Caltrain raised fares Jan. 1. AC Transit and Golden Gate ferry fares increase July 1. BART and the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority are still debating higher fares, but the question isn't so much if the fares should go up but rather by how much.

Dave Schneider, a 63-year-old cabbie who rides Muni to get around town when he isn't working, is angry.

"If we can bail out AIG, why can't we bail out all the public transit agencies in America, considering that many lower-income and middle-class people have no other transportation choice," said Schneider. Last month, he couldn't afford to buy a monthly Fast Pass. When the price goes up, "it's going to be even harder," he said.

Less than a year ago, transit operators were boasting of carrying the highest number of riders in more than 50 years, spurred in large part by rising gasoline prices that drove more people out of their cars and onto mass transportation.

While passengers experienced more-crowded buses, streetcars and ferries, or were passed up at stops altogether if there was no room to board, the surge swelled fare-box revenue and prompted transit officials to start looking at expanding service. It also gave hope to environmentalists that with the right incentive - in this case saving money at the gas pump - polluting emissions from cars could be reduced.

But the economic collapse quickly changed that optimistic outlook. In California, the governor and lawmakers eliminated all funding for local transit operations to help solve the state's budget crisis.

"The conundrum with transit is the more service you have, the more ridership you attract. The double bind that transit agencies are facing now - having to cut service and raise fares - is the worst thing you can do to generate demand for your product," said David Goldberg, communications director for Transportation for America, a national transit advocacy group.

Long recovery time

A recent infusion of federal stimulus funding is expected to keep transit operations afloat - for now - but the fear is that if the cuts are too deep, it will take time for transit systems to rebound from reduced staffing and deferred maintenance.

San Francisco's Muni still is digging out of the financial morass from the mid-1990s in which service suffered and voters revolted by demanding more funding and imposing performance standards. Muni has yet to achieve the mandated 85 percent on-time performance mark.

Over at AC Transit headquarters in Oakland on Wednesday, the directors held a retreat to ruminate on the future of their bus system, which is bracing not just for the fare increase but for service cuts in December. If those efforts don't resolve the system's deficit, the prospect of reducing or eliminating weekend service has been broached.

"It's possible that our ridership will abandon us and we'll get into a downward spiral. I think we're at a critical point," said AC Transit Director Greg Harper.

"I believe it's possible we could cut to such a point we could kill ourselves, kill AC Transit," Harper added.