SIMI VALLEY : Riders Cool to Proposal for Bus Fare Hike

A proposal to raise Simi Valley Transit fares received a cool reception Friday among riders waiting at several local bus stops.

On Monday, the City Council will consider several price hike options, including one that would raise the basic one-way fare from 75 cents to $1.

“It’s too expensive as it is,” said Gavin Fisher, 14, who was boarding a bus to a shopping center across town.

Lewis Hoskinson, 24, said he was not pleased by the plan. But he said he would pay a higher bus fare in order to keep his job at a fast-food outlet.

“It’s the only way I get to work,” he said.

A bus fare increase would not go over well among students who cannot afford cars, said Shannon Alexander, 16, who attends Royal High School.

“I have to walk to school,” she said. “But when I have the money, I take the bus. Ninety cents or a dollar would be too much.”

The city, which operates four bus routes, last raised the basic fare in 1989, from 50 to 75 cents. But city staff members said this amount will no longer cover 20% of the system’s operating costs, as required by the City Council.

During the 1992-93 fiscal year, the system recorded more than 359,000 passenger boardings.

At Monday’s meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, the council will review proposals to raise the basic fare to 90 cents, 95 cents or $1. The cost of passes and special fares for senior citizens and riders with disabilities would also rise proportionally.

If approved, the new fares would take effect Sept. 7.

Priscilla Crammond, 22, of Simi Valley, who uses the bus to get to and from her job at a shoe store, hopes the council decides not to raise fares.

“I think 75 cents is fine,” she said. “They shouldn’t raise it.”

The South Coast Area Transit bus system, which serves five cities in west Ventura County, recently raised its basic fare to $1, the same figure charged by Camarillo Area Transit.

The county’s Interconnect Bus charges $1.25, while the Thousand Oaks Transit system continues to charge 75 cents.