Sneaky ABQ Ride fare increase

marjorie says...

Let's call a 50 cent transfer charge what it really is: a fare increase for bus riders.

Believe it or not, there are some people who transfer multiple times a day just to get to and from work. Transfers are part of the fare.

So its disingenuous to explain this away as a transfer charge while saying the "bus fare" will remain the same.

The city cites fraud and abuse for the increase, saying that people are giving their transfers to other people who then don't have to pay, or that people are attempting to use expired transfers and being abusive to bus drivers when challenged.

Is the city suggesting the majority of their bus ridership engages in this kind of behavior?

If the handing over of transfer tickets to other passengers, by what is surely very much a minority of riders, is a problem (which is debatable) the city ought to come up with a new way of handling transfers that doesn't penalize poor people.

But I suppose you'd have to be a member of the working poor, or had to have actually taken the bus regularly at some point in your life to actually get this.