Rail, bus fare increases just the same old song

Talk about fake news. Commuters were not happy when they left a transit public hearing where they heard a familiar refrain: tickets prices and bus fares are going up, service is going to be cut and Connecticut’s transportation commissioner acknowledged the draconian cuts were “going to have a difficult impact on an extremely vulnerable population.”

That is not good news coming from the man that in 2011 Gov. Dannel P. Malloy called “someone to help speed the Department of Transportation’s embrace of mass transit and alternative transportation” when James Redeker was named commissioner.

Instead, it is crawling and pretty obvious to many people at the meeting — like New Haven resident Dawn Bliesener, who said the proposed cuts target the elderly and poor and she was “incredibly disappointed —” that he has failed.

The proposed (but, of course, it isn’t proposed at all since it will happen) rail fare would increase in three phases: 10 percent on July 1; 5 percent on July 1, 2020; and 5 percent the year after that. Bus fares would increase by 14.3 percent, or 25 cents, in July; and fares for the Rocky Hill-Glastonbury and Chester-Hadlyme ferries would be raised by $1.

The proposed transit cuts also include the possible elimination of weekend service on the New Canaan, Danbury and Waterbury branch lines as well as reduction of weekday off-peak service on the lines.

Guilford resident Betty Jane Schiller said she hoped the frustration that speakers expressed at the meeting wasn’t falling on deaf ears.

Commuters have long had good reason to believe it does.

Over the last 15 years, the state has held numerous public information meetings and sent out questionnaires asking commuters what it needs to do to improve its transportation system. In terms of buses, commuters have responded with the same answers time and time again: more buses, better connections and more reliability.

But public transportation has gotten increasingly worse with some people spending hours to get to and from work and it is not lost on anyone that these public meetings come when ticket prices are going up and false promises are made.

Connecticut has tried to up its game with CTfastrak and some new buses. But CTfastrak is only available on one side of the state and commuters have to be model-slim to sit comfortably on buses.

With the DOT on one side, the state legislature on the other and mass transit users stuck in the middle, even Redeker is waiting for a collision.

The Department of Transportation is in a conundrum: It must raise fares but its assertion that by doing so public transportation will improve suggests that after decades of false promises, commuters still believe it.

That remains to be seen.

But given the response from commuters at the meeting, transportation officials have gone to that well so many times with talk of fare hikes but better service, riders simply have lost faith.

And they can now name that tune Redeker is singing in one note: “It’s the same old song” — just a different commissioner mouthing the lyrics.