Fares to Claremont's Heavily Used Dial-a-Ride Program to Rise

The high cost of operating the city’s Dial-a-Ride transportation cab service prompted Claremont’s City Council to approve doubling the riders fares on Tuesday.

Starting Jan. 1, fares will increase to $2.50, up from $1.25, for the general public. For seniors and the disabled, fares rise from 75 cents to $1.50. After-hours ride fares, for youth, disabled and seniors, increase to $4 from $2.

The council also agreed to revisit the issue in September 2013 and January 2014 to analyze data and make sure the program is staying within budget.

If expenditures continue to exceed the available budget, officials said more changes could be made. Those include:

• Limiting amount of rides per rider per month
• Discontinuing all or select out-of-city services
• Discontinuing after hours services
• Additional fare increases

Without the fare increase the city’s Dial-a-Ride program funding would dry up within two and a half years.

The success of the program is partially to blame for its financial woes. Ridership has increased from about 16,000 in 2008 to more than 60,000 so far this year.

Each ride costs the city about $9 no matter how far a rider is going, said Carrie Sneed, a management analyst with the city.

“And the fares for the program have not been increased since 2000,” Sneed told the council.

The total cost to run the program is $1,085,000. The city collects about $90,000 in fares. Despite that and Metro funding, the city has still been using $400,000 to $500,000 in Proposition A money to keep the program running. Prop. A is the one half cent sales tax measures used to finance countywide municipal transportation projects.

Those funds won’t last, especially at the rate the ridership is growing. Officials suspect the growth was spurred by the rise in gas prices and the struggling economy, city officials said.

Residents helped the city shape the fare increase, Sneed said. Three community meetings were held to take input. And while some residents did say the increase would have an impact, the majority agreed doubling was the best option over cutting services.

During Tuesday’s council meeting, Councilman Joe Lyons thanked the staff reminding everyone how long the staff has worked on the project.

“As the council’s appointee to the Pomona Valley Transit Authority I can attest to the fact that everyone has done their best to deal with the issue and be very sensitive to the needs of our ridership,” Lyons said. “I think the city has been dealing with this for two years knowing that it was a program that we have encouraged success from and it certainly did that, plus some.”

To learn more about the Dial-a-Ride program, check out Claremont's website.