Streetcar fares lowered, tram fares undecided

While the Portland Streetcar fare dropped to $1.70 Jan. 1, the fare for Portland’s new aerial tram is still under debate among city and transportation officials.

The price of a one-way tram ticket could cost as much as $4-more than double the cost of the other city transit fares. City Commissioner Sam Adams is meeting with TriMet and Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU) today to finalize the price of the tram fare.

The tram, which opens to the public on Jan. 27, runs from the South Waterfront area to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) in the Marquam Hill district.

Streetcar administrators lowered the light rail fare to $1.70 in order to put the cost at the rate of the MAX and Portland buses, said Kay Dannen, sponsorship program manager of the Portland Streetcar. Dannen said that fare evasion played only a small part in lowering the streetcar fair, and that the decreased price was to make the cost of a streetcar pass and MAX pass equivalent.

Roland Chlapowski, Adams’ liaison to the Portland Department of Transportation, said that Adams is working to also keep the tram fee at about $1.70, instead of the proposed $4. Any tram fare would pay for the money that the City of Portland invests on operating costs for the tram.

The City of Portland will pay 15 percent of the $1.76 million annual operating cost of the tram, while OHSU picks up the remaining 85 percent. Chlapowski said that if the city charges $1.70 instead of the $4 fare, the city would subsidize the money that the fare does not pay for.

“The goal is to make tram part of the seamless transit system,” Chlapowski said. “Right now we’re in the mix with transit and OHSU officials integrating requirements [and] trying to come to agreements.”

A tram fare raise could also discourage public ridership-patrons using the tram would have to pay $4 for a one-way ticket instead of paying less for an all-day pass riding other methods of city transit, Chlapowski said.

“It wouldn’t make sense to accept transfer tickets and still charge a $4 fare,” he said. “If we did that, people would be more likely to just ride the streetcar and pay once.”

Along with a lowered fare price, streetcar riders now only have to pay for one ticket to ride the rail system for the whole day, unlike the old tickets that expired after two hours. Dannen said that it is difficult to prevent people from riding the streetcar without paying because it would cost more to pay a fare inspector than the streetcar makes in fare revenues.

“Since the city owns the streetcar and is only partnered with TriMet, it could have charged ridiculous fares, but that would have made transfer difficult,” Dannen said. “It’s important to be able to move around in a system that works together.”

As people riding the Northwest loop of the streetcar can pay just once to ride all day, the cost is only 50 percent of what it was before.

Unveiled in 2004, tram project managers initially told the public and city officials that the tram was to be part of a seamless public transit system along with TriMet and the Portland Streetcar. Original operation costs were estimated at an annual cost of $900,000. The tram would also accept transfer tickets and all-day passes, integrating it with the rest of Portland’s public transportation.

Today, project managers are saying tram operation expenses are more than they originally estimated. “Initial cost figures were unfortunately low. They were just low-confidence estimates,” Chlapowski said. “The folks who made them were not very well versed in tram operations.”

“The estimates were just low-ball and wrong. Whatever happens, there are a lot of unknowns, which will likely be found after the tram’s been up for awhile,” said Chlapowski. “Right now there are just so many unknowns.”