By Adam Pagnucco.
In a previous post, I detailed County Executive Marc Elrich’s proposal to shift to free Ride On bus fares and the opposition by Maryland Secretary of Transportation Paul Wiedefeld, who was concerned about the impact on other transit services. Now a prominent former county transportation official has weighed in.
Glenn Orlin was the county council’s transportation analyst and capital budget coordinator for decades. He also once worked for the state transportation department. Orlin educated several generations of analysts (including me) before retiring last year and is one of the most knowledgeable transportation experts anywhere in Maryland. His comments to the county council about free Ride On fares are worth reading and are reprinted below.
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Dear Councilmembers,
For decades the transit policy in Montgomery County was to charge Ride On and Metrobus patrons within the county the same fare. If the Ride On fare was to be set lower than the regional Metrobus fare, County DOT would arrange with WMATA that the Metrobus fare within the county would be set at the same level, and the foregone Metrobus revenue would be reimbursed by the County. That is exactly what occurred (and is continuing to occur) under the Seniors Ride Free and Kids Ride Free Programs: money is included in DOT’s annual operating budget to reimburse WMATA for its foregone revenue under these two programs.
That policy went out the window a couple of years ago when the Council reduced Ride On fares to $1.00, but left the fare for Metrobus routes at $2.25. This is an inequity that treats bus patrons who rely on Metrobus unfairly.
Here is a link to a map showing all the bus routes in the county: https://www.wmata.com/schedules/maps/upload/system-map-bus-MD-MoCo.pdf. The lines in red are more frequently used Metrobus routes; those lines in light blue are “local” Metrobus routes. All of them have charged and will continue to charge $2.25 per ride. Note that most of the Metrobus routes are in the central and eastern portion of the county, which are generally more transit-dependent and where the BIPOC share of the population is higher than in the western portion of the county.
The proposed budget would exacerbate this inequity. It would eliminate the Ride On fare entirely but continue to keep the Metrobus fare at $2.25.
I understand the motivation for this change is to eliminate the need for Ride On to have a fare collection function, which would result in a small reduction in its annual operating cost but also to obviate the expense of replacing fare collection equipment on Ride On buses. It would also provide an effective income supplement to the Ride On-dependent population, a laudable goal. But if the Council is to concur with the Executive’s recommendation, it should also make Metrobus fares in the county free and add funds to the FY26 budget to reimburse WMATA for its foregone revenue. I urge the T&E Committee to request from DOT its estimate of what this reimbursement would be and to add it to the Reconciliation List and, ultimately, to the FY26 approved Operating Budget.
Thank you for your consideration of this request.
Sincerely,
Glenn Orlin