Metro says it is searching for solutions to close a massive $750 million budget gap, and riders could be asked to pay more for the service through a fare increase.
Metro General Manager Randy Clarke told News4 fares could go up an extra 40 cents for shorter trips and the max fare could increase to $7.
"In the proposed budget, we talked about a 20 percent fare increase. Obviously now, my job as the general manager is to get a proposed budget to the board. The public process will go through that. We’ve been working with all of our jurisdictional partners. The reality is we don’t have the money to run the service that we are running today, let alone run the stuff that people want us to do more of,” Clarke said.
We're making it easier for you to find stories that matter with our new newsletter — The 4Front. Sign up here and get news that is important for you to your inbox.
Metro raised fares last July because of declining ridership due to the pandemic. It was the first fare increase in five years.
The Metro board will have to vote on a fare increase amount and then present that to the public so riders will get a chance to weigh in.
Any new fare increase would not take effect until July 2024.
