JUDGE REFUSES TO BLOCK METRO FARE INCREASES HIKES SET TO BEGIN SUNDAY CRITICS SAY RIDERSHIP WILL FALL.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH

Staff Writer

Metro bus and train fares will increase sharply Sunday as planned after a judge Wednesday refused a request from bus rider and environmental groups to block the new rates.

The price of day passes will increase from $3 to $5. Weekly passes will jump from $14 to $17; monthly passes will spike from $52 to $62.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority spokesman Marc Littman said stopping the planned increase would have been "a logistical nightmare."

The agency already has spent $200,000 on promotional material to prepare riders for the increases.

Metro also would have lost an estimated $80,000 a day in expected additional revenue if the fare increase had been halted.

The Bus Riders Union, the Labor/Community Strategy Center and Natural Resources Defense Council had sought a temporary restraining order to prevent the agency from enacting the new rates.

They argue that higher fares will force more public-transit users to drive their own vehicles, resulting in more air pollution and traffic.

They also argue that Metro didn't study the potential environmental impacts of the new rates.

But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant denied the request, in part because the groups waited until the last minute to file it.

"Where were you between May 24 (when the MTA adopted the rates) and today?" Chalfant asked attorneys for the NRDC.

Chalfant also said the groups couldn't clearly show that Metro is raising fares to build new rail lines -- a key argument because under state law, the agency can raise fares without studying potential environmental impacts if the money covers existing bus and rail expenses.

But the agency would have to study potential pollution and traffic problems caused by fare increases if the money was used to build new projects.

Attorneys with the NRDC and the Bus Riders Union said they plan to continue to try to block the fare increases.

"The fare increase will force people off the buses and a lot of those people are going to start driving and riding in cars," said David Pettit, an NRDC attorney.

"Every new mile these cars drive will put more pollution in their air."

But Littman said Metro has a $70 million deficit this year and will have a $100 million deficit next year.

"If we don't deal with the deficit, we're at the point where we would have to cut service."

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SOURCE: Metro

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