Last May, Miami-Dade Transit introduced a $19 unlimited ride pass good for seven days. Called the Visitor Passport, it was marketed toward out-of-town visitors, and sold in only a few tourist-heavy spots such as Miami
At the time, transit officials insisted they had plans underway to create various rider passes in addition to the existing $75 monthly pass. There was talk of something akin to
Granted, transit does offer discounted tokens and various price breaks on monthly passes for groups, seniors and college students. But still no easy-to-use, per-ride cards.
When is MDT going to wake up?
Still charging way too much for the metro cards too (compared to what other cities charge). Buying 4 single-week passes would cost you $76 so you save a whopping $1 by buying monthly pass. A monthly metropass should run you $50 if you go by the per/trip averages of most other big cities. Maybe they could offer a $55 metrorail-only pass (no transfers to busses) that would actually make financial sense to actually go out of your way to purchase?
To illustrate the crazy $75 price tag just look at the typical metrorail commuter who takes the train to and from work every day. Thats 5 work days a week, 4.5 weeks a month or about 22 days (and thats assuming no holidays or days off). 22 days * $3 round trip = $66. So even if you take the train every day to work it doesn’t make sense to buy the pass.
Ahhh… I remember the heady days that MetroPass used to cost $60. Heck, I remember the days when it cost $0.25 to ride the bus as a student. And I’m only 37.
The bottom line for all of this is that the demand for transit is highly inelastic, especially considering that most of the riders of MDTA’s bus fleet don’t have any other way to get around. It’s why MDTA can increase the fare without much drop in ridership.
I’m lucky in that I get my discount MetroPass with my Student ID at FIU (I’m a Ph. D. student) for $37.50.
4 single week passes = 28 days. Most months are longer than that. The savings is greater than $1.
The Metrorail costs much more to operate than all of the buses combined (overall and per passenger). It isn’t even fair to charge the same to both bus riders and rail riders (as they do now), because the services are of a vastly different quality. It would be absurd to further subsidize rail travel by charging bus passengers more. Although I suppose taking money from the poor to subsidize the wealthy is a common theme in Miami. The reality is that not enough people ride the Metrorail to make it financially sound.
The wealthy people that you are trying to lure to the Metrorail won’t take it. It doesn’t go to Broward County. It doesn’t go to the airport. It doesn’t go to any beaches or Coral Gables. Where does it go?
Okay, it does go some places. And, if you are willing to take the bus and triple your travel time, you can get almost anywhere in the county using public transit. The point remains that we need more Metrorail lines. And, we don’t need them in ten to fifteen years. We need them now.