Now that buses, subways, and trolleys are running again after a six-day transit strike, SEPTA riders can brace for the next unpleasantness: a fare hike.
SEPTA has been planning to increase fares in 2010 ever since it last boosted them in 2007. Regular smaller increases are better, SEPTA officials maintain, than infrequent big increases.
The day of reckoning is drawing closer. Raises likely would be scheduled to take effect around July 1, the start of the agency's 2011 fiscal year.
SEPTA won't say how much fares may go up. But the agency has budgeted for a 9.5 percent increase in passenger revenue in fiscal 2011.
A fare increase of that size could mean the cost of a token would go from the current $1.45 to about $1.60, and a weekly TransPass from the current $20.75 to about $22.75.
But nothing's certain.
"If there is a fare increase, we don't know how much it will be," SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams said yesterday. She said it would depend on inflation, ridership, the overall economy, and SEPTA's effort at "fare simplification."
A 10 percent hike could boost SEPTA's base cash fare from the current $2 to $2.20. That would put it behind New York City, Chicago, and San Diego, which are at $2.25, and ahead of Boston ($2 subway/$1.50 bus), San Francisco ($1.75), and Washington ($1.65 subway/$1.35 bus).
SEPTA would have to hold hearings in the region's five counties and get approval from its 15-member board before implementing any fare increase.
Williams was quick to say the new contract agreed to yesterday for bus drivers, subway and trolley operators, and mechanics was not to blame for a fare hike.
There was no wage increase for the first year of that contract, and the $1,250-per-worker ratification bonus is to be paid from the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation budget, not SEPTA's.
"It has nothing to do directly with the contract," Williams said of a possible fare increase. She noted that a transportation funding and reform commission in 2006 recommended regular fare increases to keep up with rising costs.
Yesterday, SEPTA passengers generally were happy just to have a ride.
Buses, subways, and trolleys were back on their regular routes after a midnight contract settlement brokered by Rep. Bob Brady (D., Pa.) and Gov. Rendell.
The new five-year contract for the 5,100 members of Transport Workers Union Local 234 "is essentially the same" as the one rejected by the union leadership a week ago, Rendell said.
