Regional fare integration study moves forward

On Wednesday, 10/23, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission approved funding for a Business Case Study for Fare Integration. 

Following advocacy from Seamless Bay Area, SPUR and others, the study will have a stakeholder group expanded from a subcommittee of the Policy Advisory Council of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, which will have representatives of groups representing various sets of transit riders. These meetings will be open to the public, so if you are interested in the details of the study, this will be a good place to follow along.

For people following closely, an issue to watch will be the customer research. The scope of work for the study said that research among existing customers will focus on research studies that transit agencies already have on their shelves. But these studies done by individual transit agencies didn’t focus on multi-agency trips and customers who use multiple agencies. The request for proposals asked bidders to describe the customer research, so it's possible the customer research will improve.

Thanks to everyone who supported this important study moving forward - attention and encouragement will be helpful in getting good outcomes as a result.