Commuter fares index a good thing

[FJ and G]

When you grocery shop, do you ever look at the unit price? They have unit prices not only for food but, as I found out yesterday, even wine.

In the last month or two, Trains magazine had a very small article on commuter fare rate comparisons or "unit prices." They didn't compare all of them just a couple. I think DC metro, which actually is a subway, was one.

It would be nice to have a commuter fare index for all light rail, commuter and subway lines; trolley too, perhaps.

I'm paying nearly $200 a month to ride VRE and the excuse I always hear for raising fares is that gov't help has fallen.

The fare index is a ratio of gov't support over ticket prices. Much easier to compare one line with another.

Of course, the next excuse VRE will use might be: "our equipment is old and we need money to buy new."

One of the frustrating things about VRE is that most who take it are federal workers who get half their fare paid for; some bigger companies also kick in a large percentage. These fat cats never complain about fare increases, as there are plenty of tax dollars paying for it.

Perhaps we could call it the commuter misery index.

Dave Vergun

[CSSHEGEWISCH]

Chicago RTA has a program known as Transit Checks which allows employers to cover part of the monthly fare of their employees. The Transit Checks are vouchers which are good for payment of tickets or passes on CTA, Metra, Pace (suburban buses) and NICTD (South Shore Line).

My reasearch indicates that fares are generally lower in the Midwest than in the Northeast. Metra monthly fare for Zone D (16-20 miles from Chicago Loop) currently runs at $89.10 per month.