On one side of the equation are the 1.1 million bus riders each day, most of whom are poor and rely heavily, if not completely, on public transportation. Every time each of them boards a bus in Los Angeles, taxpayers kick in $1.16.
On the other side are the far fewer passengers on the region's slowly blooming rail system--one for every 15 bus riders--who tend to be more affluent and less dependent on mass transit. Each of their trips commands a taxpayer subsidy three to 8 1/2 times that of a bus ride.
Yet it is mainly bus fares that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeks to raise in coming months to help bridge a $126-million operating deficit.
It is a strategy that community activists such as Chris Niles believe will penalize the most loyal but least well-off of the MTA's customers.
"It's absolutely wrong," said Niles, who works with the Labor/Community Strategy Center in the Mid-Wilshire district. "They're putting the burden on the backs of bus riders (to build) very inefficient rail projects that no one's using. These are people who are just barely keeping their head above water who will be forced to find unique ways to finance their transit needs."
MTA officials counter that bus fares have remained untouched for six years. Even the proposed increase from $1.10 to $1.35 contained in the MTA's new budget would simply put Los Angeles in line with what most other large cities--New York, Philadelphia, Chicago--charge. And rail projects must be launched now if the burgeoning region is to have a sensible transit network in the next millennium, officials say.
"We are about two things in this agency: providing good transportation services for today's riders and trying to develop a transportation capability that can serve tomorrow's riders," MTA chief executive Franklin E. White said. "A lot of people forget that second obligation."
In many ways, the clashing views of White and Niles epitomize the divisive debate that has sprung up over fare increases and service reductions proposed by the MTA last month. The battle has become fierce, leading one man to wage a hunger strike and local politicians to speak out with unaccustomed vehemence.
A public hearing on the fare increases is scheduled for 10 a.m. today at the county Hall of Administration. The MTA's board of directors could decide the issue next week.
