Free and reduced-cost SMART rides proposed for start of service

Passengers who want to ride commuter rail in the North Bay could do so for free or for half the cost for the entire summer in 2017 under a proposal unveiled Wednesday.

Farhad Mansourian, general manager of the Sonoma Marin Area Rail Transit Authority, recommended the proposal on the grounds that it would spur interest in the trains and give people time to learn how to navigate trips and payment methods.

“A big piece of it is education, and another piece of it is marketing,” Mansourian said Wednesday in an interview. “We’re trying to tell people to come and try us. This is much better than the Highway 101 parking lot.”

Mansourian also used Wednesday’s meeting of the agency’s directors in Petaluma to sketch out plans to add a monthly pass for regular riders, in addition to the annual pass SMART already plans to offer. The proposed pass would cost $200 and be good for up to 31 days after activation. Youth, seniors and disabled riders would pay a reduced monthly rate of $100.

Mansourian did not specify how long people would be allowed to ride the trains for free under his proposal. He said more generally that period of time should be followed by another period allowing people to ride for half the regular cost. He suggested SMART wait until after Labor Day to begin charging riders full fares.

The ultimate benefit of that plan for riders would depend largely on whether SMART can begin passenger service as now planned in late spring 2017. Earlier this year, SMART had been aiming to launch service this month, but the rail agency in October announced a delay tied in part to engine problems on the trains.

Mansourian said Wednesday that the engine on the first of 14 rail cars was replaced in Santa Rosa over the weekend and that workers are on schedule to complete the remaining work by the end of March.

SMART has faced public scrutiny this year over what it plans to charge riders to use the taxpayer-funded rail service. Mansourian’s call Wednesday for a period of free or reduced cost to ride trains, as well as a new proposal he outlined for a monthly pass, will add fodder to that debate.

The rail agency’s directors in July approved a $3.50 base fare and $2 charge for each zone line crossed, which equates to an average overall fare of $5.25 with discounts factored in. Without discounts, the average fare is $7.50.

A one-way trip from Santa Rosa to San Rafael will cost $9.50, or $19 round-trip without discounts. The maximum daily fare is $23.50.

Mansourian said following Wednesday’s meeting that the break-in period with free and reduced fares is not intended to address concerns some have about the cost of using the service.

However, Steve Birdlebough, a member of SMART’s Citizens Oversight Committee, urged directors to limit the promotion, saying other transit agencies that offered similar incentives have experienced “crushloads” of passengers.

“It’s a terrible experience for riding the train,” he said.

Wednesday’s study session was held to discuss the proposal. Mansourian said he plans to bring it back to the board in January for a public hearing and possibly formal action.

Mansourian’s proposal for the monthly pass came in response to board direction this summer and public feedback indicating demand for something beyond the yearly fare pass for riders.

Mansourian noted the standard $200 monthly proposal would amount to $10 a day for a person who commutes five days a week using SMART. That’s well below the maximum daily rate of $23.50, but still above the average fare of $7.50.

Some SMART directors said they liked the monthly pass idea because it’s an easy concept to understand and offers riders flexibility.

But SMART director Gary Phillips, who also serves as San Rafael’s mayor, expressed concern that the promotion and the monthly passes would eat into the rail agency’s bottom line.

“These are pretty substantial reductions, more than I would have anticipated,” Phillips said.

Mansourian said he does not believe the introduction of a monthly pass would result in SMART losing out longer-term on potential revenue because he said the passes don’t change forecasts for how many people will ride at discounted rates, versus those who pay full fares. He said the monthly passes might actually spur more ridership, which in turn could increase fare revenues.

SMART’s current rate structure is projected to generate initial annual revenue of $3.9 million, about 13 percent of the agency’s operating budget. Currently, about 85 percent of the $30 million operating budget is covered by sales tax from Measure Q, the voter-approved rail initiative passed by voters in 2008.

SMART director Shirlee Zane, a Sonoma County supervisor, said she wondered where the incentive would be for people to ride using SMART’s “EcoPass” program, in which employees receive discounts at a rate tied to the number of annual passes purchased by the companies in advance.

Under that program, employees at companies with up to 50 workers - a threshold that qualifies a vast number of employers in Sonoma County - would pay $13 more a month to ride the train than if they purchase a monthly pass.

“What’s the sense of having an EcoPass if we’re undercutting ourselves by offering a monthly pass?” Zane said.

Mansourian conceded there wouldn’t be financial incentive for employees at those companies to use the EcoPass.

But for employees at firms and agencies with more than 50 workers, the EcoPass is a better than deal than the monthly pass they can purchase on their own. For those employees, the EcoPass starts at $193, dropping in tiers for larger organizations.

You can reach Staff Writer Derek Moore at 707-521-5336 or derek.moore@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @derekmoore.