Quote:
Originally Posted by GGG
I would say the current system is near capacity during peak hours so I don’t think you’d get much benefit just making it free. I think discounted evenings, weekends and families could improve ridership in non peak hours
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I agree with this completely. When I worked downtown commuting by train was an unbelievable bargain, and I would have done it at twice the price. One train fare compared to gas/maintenance/expensive parking.
But taking my family to an event downtown/zoo/etc on the weekend is totally different. 4x return train fare is invariably more expensive than gas/maintenance/cheap parking.
The reason airlines, hotels, cruise ships and every other business with a perishable product adjusts prices by demand is that it makes sense. If you build for peak usage, you have excess capacity during off peak. Discounting to fill that capacity likely increases revenue, and also provides some of the other benefits of transit use to society (less ghg emissions, traffic, etc)