Ridership is up... It must be fare increase time!

Stolen with Malice from the NICTD website...

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE
NICTD PROPOSED FARE INCREASE

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) will hold a series of public hearings to gather comments on a proposed fare increase of 2% effective in 2006 and 2% effective in 2007 for the South Shore Line rail passenger service. The proposed fare increase would apply to all stations except Hegewisch. Metra controls the fares at Hegewisch.

The general public may comment in person at the public hearing or mail their comments to the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District, 33 East US Highway 12, Chesterton, Indiana 46304. Comments must be received by NICTD on or before May 11, 2006. A complete list of the proposed fares is available at all manned ticket offices, or by clicking here for a pdf version of 2006, and here for a pdf version of 2007.

Public hearing schedule:

Wednesday, May 3, 2006 - 6:30 p.m. CDT
Gary Public Library Auditorium
220 West 5th Ave., Gary

Thursday, May 4, 2006 - 7:00 p.m. CDT
NICTD Administrative Office Board Room
33 East US Highway 12, Chesterton

Tuesday, May 9, 2006 - 7:00 p.m. CDT
Hammond City Council Chambers - Room 209
5925 Calumet Ave, Hammond

Wednesday, May 10, 2006 - 7:00 p.m. CDT
Michigan City Hall, Lower Level
100 East Michigan Blvd., Michigan City

Thursday, May 11, 2006 - 8:00 p.m. EDT
Studebaker Room
Michiana Regional Airport, South Bend

I would encourage people to show up and ask questions of the NICTD management if at all possible. I wouldn't even question the fare increase as much as the questions that never get answered. Things such as...

-How much of this money will the employees see?
Will this keep from their jobs getting cut. (aka service cuts for us)

-After personally seeing dangerously overcrowded trains, what is the number of passengers on a normal 93 seat car, that is legal by the fire codes?
Why were mulitiple trains allowed to exceed these levels during the week ending April 7th?
What disiplinary action was taken against the collectors/conductors who allowed this to happen?
What steps are being taken to make sure that these overcrowding problems don't occur again during special events such as Taste of Chicago to ensure passenger safety?

-Why does the NICTD think there will be enough customers to support a new railline to the south?

-What will be the fiscal outlook for the NICTD both with and without the fare increases, and how much revenue are they projecting to generate from this action?

-Why wasn't the issue of additional cars during the Dan Ryan construction looked at years ago, so as to have the cars in place by the start of construction?
If the cars are purchased soon, will they still be a still fiscally sound decesion once ridership predicably decreases when the Dan Ryan constuction finishes in a couple of years?

And if you have any questions, feel free to add them to the comments...