Transit fares

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Transit fares are fees charged for travel on publicly chartered or operated transportation systems, including rapid transit trains, trolleys and buses (as these are known in northeastern parts of the United States). Transit fares have long been partially subsidized in many North American cities; they are lower than full costs of providing services. Justifications for these subsidies often include assistance to lower-income residents and reduction in automobile traffic.^[1]

Recently the U.S. began a program that that permits residents to pay mass transit fees using pre-tax dollars.^{[citation needed]} The program is typically administered by a third party, and requires automatic pre-tax deductions from an employee's paycheck. This generally limits eligibility and availability to employees working at mid to large sized companies in large cities. This has the benefit of encouraging more use of mass transit, by offering a discount equal to an individual's tax rate (25-40% off).

[edit] Trends in transit fares

The chart shows a 50-year history of transit fares at 5-year intervals for four North American cities with long established heavy-rail transit systems (also known as rapid transit systems), each of them converted to central, publicly controlled operation between 1940 and 1954. The fares listed and charted are adult, cash subway fares for central zones of the transit systems,^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} converted to spring, 2006, U.S. dollars using the U.S. Consumer Price Index for "All Urban Consumers" and Bank of Canada exchange rates.^{[6] [7]} The following table shows some characteristics of these rail transit systems.

After 1990 New York and Toronto increased their inflation-adjusted fares significantly, while Boston held fares somewhat lower than in earlier years. Among these cities, before 1975 Chicago stood out for high fares. After 1990 Boston stood out for low fares.

     Transit System        Year       Revenue Trackage   Average Fares (adjusted to 2006)
       Location        Centralized    Miles Kilometers       1955-1990     1995-2005
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   New York (NY, U.S.)     1940         656     1056           $1.22         $1.78
   Chicago (IL, U.S.)      1945         222      357           $1.58         $1.74
   Boston (MA, U.S.)       1947          66*     105*          $1.29         $1.14
   Toronto (ON, Canada)    1954          39       62           $1.23         $1.87
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Philadelphia (PA, U.S.) 1964          60*+     97*+          N/A           N/A
   Montréal (QE, Canada)   1970          38       61            N/A           N/A
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   London (UK)           1933         254      408            N/A           N/A
   Paris (France)          1930         131      210            N/A           N/A
                                    *includes light rail
                                    + estimated trackage

[edit] See also

• Public transportation
• Rapid transit
• Affordable housing
• Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority
• Montréal Métro
• London Underground
• Paris Métro

[edit] References and notes

1. ^ Federal Transit Administration (2003). FTA 1996 Report: An Update. U.S. Department of Transportation.
2. ^ New York City Transit Authority. See "Fare history."
3. ^ Boston Transportation Department (2003). Access Boston, Delivering and Enhancing Transit Service. City of Boston.
4. ^ Chicago-L.org (2006). CTA Fare Systems. Chicago-L.org.
5. ^ Mike Vainchtein (2006). TTC Facts and Figures. Mike's Transit Stop.
6. ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006). Consumer Price Indexes. U.S. Department of Labor.
7. ^ Bank of Canada (2006). Exchange Rates. Bank of Canada.