METRA Fare Zone Changes

https://www.railwayage.com/passenger/tr ... -caltrain/

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Metra’s current fare zone system has 10 zones, and prices for some tickets are based on the number of zones traveled. Under the new proposal, there would be only four fare zones (see proposed zone map below). Downtown stations would be assigned to Zone 1 and outlying stations would be assigned to Zones 2 through 4 based on a combination of distance from downtown, service patterns and ridership characteristics on each line, which vary. Generally, stations within and near Chicago would be in Zone 2, stations in an intermediate service zone would be in Zone 3, and remaining stations would be in Zone 4.
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One-Way Tickets to the downtown zone, Zone 1, would cost $3.75 from Zone 2, $5.50 from Zone 3 and $6.75 from Zone 4. The new one-way fare from all zones would be equal to or lower than the current one-way fare. To encourage non-downtown trips, all One-Way Tickets for trips that do not include downtown as a starting point or destination would cost $3.75, no matter the distance.
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A Monthly Pass would be priced at 20 times the cost of a One-Way Ticket: $75 for Zone 2, $110 for Zone 3 and $135 for Zone 4. This pricing is below the cost of pre-COVID Monthly Passes. The current $100 flat-rate “Super Saver” Monthly Pass, which was introduced as a promotional fare during the pandemic, would be discontinued.
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JS - Interesting note about proposed Metra fare changes for 2024:
https://metra.com/2024FarePlan
Zone One will be only these SIX Downtown Chicago stations:
Union Station, Ogilvie TC, LaSalle Street
Milennium/Randolph Street, Van Buren Street and Museum Campus/11 Street (METRA Electric)

There will only be three outer zones which will be numbered 2-3-4 instead of lettered B-C-D replacing the ten
zones A through J used currently. An everyday DayPass the equivalent of two one-way fares looks interesting...

One drawback is one-way tickets may be only valid on their day of sale in this plan...60 days is the current
period that Metra one-way tickets are useable for...

METRA is looking to offer reasonable incentives to increase rail ridership in the aftermath of "The Problem"...
This new plan may benefit Chicagoland commuters well...MACTRAXX

MACTRAXX wrote: ↑Sat Jun 24, 2023 8:46 amhttps://metra.com/2024FarePlan

"The 10-Ride Ticket: The 10-Ride Ticket would be discontinued. A new fare product, a Bundle of Five Day Passes, would be implemented. The bundle would be available only on the Ventra app and priced the same as the 10-Ride Ticket, at 9.5 times the cost of a One-Way Ticket. The passes could be used on non-consecutive days."

Non-consecutive days. Not a bad product allowing more than two rides per day. METRA will still have the $10 weekend pass and $7 one day Sat/Sun/Holiday pass.

The "5 Day Pass Bundle" is $64.25 or $12.85 per day. A single "Day Pass" will be $13.50. (Zone 4 pricing.)

Metra is moving forward with this plan for 2024.

The $100 a month monthly goes away, and for most longer range commuters, they'll see a 25% increase in their monthly ticket expense.

eolesen wrote: ↑Tue Oct 17, 2023 6:05 pm Metra is moving forward with this plan for 2024.

The $100 a month monthly goes away, and for most longer range commuters, they'll see a 25% increase in their monthly ticket expense.

Sad face.
But I was expecting it. They have the farebox recovery requirement looming over their heads.

Still cheaper than gas, and still cheaper that before COVID though, so I’m not complaining.

If the zone changes are part of the plan most riders will still win.

"A Monthly Pass would be priced at 20 times the cost of a One-Way Ticket: $75 for Zone 2, $110 for Zone 3 and $135 for Zone 4."

It's a win compared to pre-Covid. It's still catastrophic for farebox recovery.

In relation to farebox recovery, here's the most recent figures: https://metra.com/sites/default/files/i ... 20Memo.pdf

UP lines on top! haha. But it seems like they are doing better than the other lines. I have hopes, and I feel it will be better once Metra pivots away from peak scheduling. That said, they still mention in their budget proposal that they are facing a cliff in 2026.

No, that's not farebox recovery, it's traffic recovery. Farebox recovery is (ticket sales) / (operating expenses) = Farebox recovery rate. By statute in Illinois, it has to be at or above 50%.

The last two charts (Ex.8 and Ex.9) paint a far different spin on the numbers....

They indicate that monthly ridership was 6.2M in 2019, and it's 2.8M in 2023.

That's 45% traffic recovery on a raw passenger basis. Monthly and 10-rides are at 30% of 2019 levels.

Consider me educated. I feel sad seeing those low numbers. Nothing else I can say.

Railway Age (presumably sourced from METRA) Fare Zone Map:



RailwayAge

The Regional Transportation Authority (RTA), Metra, and Cook County, Ill., are partnering to extend reduced fares to low-income Metra riders region-wide through the Access Pilot Program. All recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) living in the counties of Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, and Will are eligible to apply. As of 2020, the total number of individuals receiving SNAP benefits in the region was approximately 1.2 million. Of those, approximately 777,000 (63%) were adults. The pilot program is slated to run from Feb. 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025.
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