Metro News Release

For immediate release: March 30, 2007

Metro unlikely to raise fares

Metro General Manager John Catoe is putting the brakes on a proposal to raise fares this July, while planning to improve services.

After just two months at the helm of the Metro system, Catoe has identified ways to close a budget gap using a variety of means, and plans to bring forth a fiscal year 2008 budget proposal to the Metro Board of Directors in April that will improve service, and keep fares and parking fees at their current levels. The plan will also reduce Metro staffing levels, to save significant dollars.

“I believe we will be able to present the Board with a budget proposal that won’t require service reductions or a fare increase in July,” Catoe said. “That’s what I’m working toward and that is what I intend to put forward to the Board. The proposal will not increase the subsidy levels required of our jurisdictional partners either.”

Catoe is looking to reduce the budget shortfall by crediting back a percentage of unused fare cards that were sold in the past but never used; using capital funds to do preventive maintenance for one year; reducing the Metro workforce; and cutting expenditures including those for consultants.

“Even though we won’t see service cuts, we will restructure some bus service by reinvesting funds earmarked for underutilized routes and allocating those monies to routes where service demand is greater,” he said. “Bus service will still be there, but our use of resources will be more efficient.”

In late summer or early fall, Catoe said he plans to ask the Metro Board to consider a long-term comprehensive, rational fare policy so that area residents will know in advance when to expect fare adjustments. He hopes to tie future increases to an easy-to-understand index, which will need to be determined.

News release issued at 12:00 am, March 30, 2007.