Would TriMet Customers be Willing to Pay More?

At the beginning of this month, TriMet cut service. Buses arrive less often on four of its Frequent Service lines during lower ridership hours, rather than pass by every 15 minutes for most of the day.

TriMet faces a $300 million gap in operating revenues. More service cuts are on the way.

Would TriMet’s customers be willing to pay more to avoid these cuts? It only costs $2.80 to ride TriMet. What service cuts could be avoided if that were raised to three dollars?

I don’t see much discussion of this from TriMet. The service district appears to look entirely to the Oregon legislature to collect marginal revenue. TriMet’s level of service is positioned to depend on Oregon’s fiscal policy rather than the value proposition its riders are willing to pay for.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.