Q&A
Impact of fare increases on ridership and revenue
1:21:58
·
153 sec
Council Member Brooks-Powers questions the timing of fare increases given economic pressures and asks about the anticipated revenue impact. EDC representatives explain their approach and expected outcomes.
- EDC takes fare changes seriously and considers various factors before implementation.
- The discount program has seen significant growth, with a 6-fold increase in ticket usage.
- New premium services with $10 tickets have been introduced, generating additional revenue.
- EDC anticipates the fare change will bring in $2 million in additional revenue per year, split evenly between organic ridership growth and the fare increase.
- Ridership among 10-pack users has increased, even with the price change.
Selvena Brooks-Powers
1:21:58
Thank you for that.
1:21:59
Now with inflation and rent increases over the past 4 years, is it does ETC find that now is the best time to increase vary prices?
1:22:11
Particularly to those who qualify for the discounted program, especially as you're working on increasing, like, the diversity in terms of your ridership, and how much additional revenue does EDC anticipate the fair in increase will result in?
James Wong
1:22:28
So we always take, as I mentioned, fair changes seriously.
1:22:33
It's an important thing that we want to do with a lot of thought and an assessment for it before we make any changes like that.
1:22:41
And so for something like the discount program, a lot of our energy in the last 2 years has been making more and more people aware of it.
1:22:48
As Randy had mentioned, having up to, you know, thousands and thousands of people who are part of that program is a big increase from the past.
1:22:56
And the 5 fold increase in in ticket usage is really important pardon me, a 6 fold increase in ticket usage has been one of our central points.
1:23:03
It's like making sure people who do qualify that for that program are aware.
1:23:07
In terms of the actual change in the fares, bringing it to $2.90 $0.45 for discount riders.
1:23:15
That was meeting and and kind of becoming more consistent with what what costs are for and on the MTA.
1:23:23
And allowing us to say that for those who are able to spend more money, we're able to offer them products at $4.50 as one of those options.
1:23:32
I'd also like to just offer that over the summer we introduced more and more options for people who are willing to spend more.
1:23:39
So for those people who are willing to spend more money for a reserved seat or for a one seat ride from places like Long Island City or Greenpoint to the rockways, We actually created new services that are catered with $10 tickets, a much higher price point.
1:23:54
But if people are interested in paying for that, they are allowed to.
1:23:59
And and that helps generate additional revenue for the system.
1:24:02
For the Rockaway route, while we do offer those premium services, we always make sure that at least half of our seats are available at our existing fare rates.
1:24:11
So if you are using any other fare product, there's always a seat going on to the Rockaways.
Franny Civitano
1:24:16
And to answer your question about anticipated revenue, we anticipate that this fair change will bring in $2,000,000 in additional revenue per year.
1:24:24
About half of that, we anticipate from organic ridership growth and half because of the fair