Daily, monthly COTA fares to be capped
Daily fares on Central Ohio Transit Authority buses will be capped at $4.50, and monthly fares at $62 under changes the agency’s board approved Wednesday.
The COTA board also agreed to cut the fare on express routes during commuter rush hours from $2.75 to the standard $2 fare for uniformity, and transfers will be modified so riders can use them as many ways as they want for two hours.
In addition, the children from birth to 5 years old will be able to ride for free, while children from 5 to 12 can ride for $1.
The changes will take effect as early as Oct. 17.
Board member Amy Landino called the moves a “really monumental moment for COTA.”
“It’s genuinely a step in the right direction,” Landino said. “We are going to reduce our revenue to do this.”
The fare capping will cut COTA’S receipts by $1.8 million a year. Angel Mumma, COTA’S chief financial officer, said that while losing revenue is not ideal, the changes to the fare structure are about affordability and equity.
“It’s consistent with our goals and objectives,” Mumma said.
Many of COTA’S riders cannot afford to pay for monthly passes but end up spending more than the $62 cost of that pass as they pay day by day.
COTA’S new fare management system will be able to track riders’ usage so they don’t pay more than $62 a month.
In 2020, COTA entered into a $1.5million contract with Masabi LLC for a new smart-card system where riders can add values to smart cards and mobile devices at more than 400 locations. That’s how COTA will be able to track daily and monthly usage so riders don’t pay more than the cap.
Mumma said other transit systems cap fares.
COTA also is eliminating its sevenday passes and rolling passes that begin on the first day of use.
Walter Hardy, a COTA rider, told the board before the vote on the changes that the new account system might be too complicated for some riders. He said that riders should have the option of buying rolling passes that last a month no matter when they buy them, rather then a calendar-based monthly system.
Mumma said having monthly passes that begin on the first day of the month make it easier for riders to remember and customer service representatives to deal with, although she said that riders will have to decide what is best for their own circumstances.
Riders will still be able to use cash to pay fares.
COTA has not raised its fares in a decade.
In other business, the COTA board also approved a 2020 audit by Clark Schaefer Hackett that found no material problems with the transit agency’s financial statements. “A clean audit,” COTA board Chairman Craig Treneff said.
The audit showed that COTA’S sales tax revenues, its main source of income, dipped in 2020, from $136 million in 2019 to $134 million in 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold.
But as COTA temporarily eliminated fares in March 2020, the agency’s funding was buoyed by $50 million in federal CARES Act money.
The board also approved a year-long $150,000 contract with law firm Squire Patton Boggs for federal lobbying and government affairs consulting services, a significant jump from $96,000 in its last contract. The Cleveland-based firm has offices in Columbus and Washington, D.C. mferench@dispatch.com @Markferenchik