What Muni Fast Pass Hike? SFMTA Hasn't Told Anyone

One of my popular postings at Akit's Complaint Department is titled: "Muni Fast Pass goes up January: How to still save money" and explains about the planned raising of Muni's adult Fast Pass from $55 (w/BART), to $60 (w/out BART) and $70 (w/BART). My source to the price hike is a link to a SF Appeal article posted on September 1, 2009.

January 2010 is not far away; there has been no word from the SFMTA/Muni of a Fast Pass price hike anywhere on their website. It's not on their front page, and not on their "Passes, Tickets, and Single-Ride Ticket Booklets" page (as of Wednesday). That's really odd.

While the SFMTA has failed to provide proper notice to the public about a pass hike; it has been widely known for the past several months that a price hike on the adult pass is planned to happen in January. Here are a list of articles you can read that supports this claim:

• "SF Board Makes Deal on Muni Budget Cuts" (SF Chronicle/SFGate; May 13, 2009)
• "BART Fast Pass Liberty Swiped" (SF Examiner; June 1, 2009)
• "Supes OK Muni Budget" (SF Chronicle/SFGate; May 28, 2009)
• "SF Supervisors Approve Big Muni Fare Hike" (CBS 5; May 13, 2009)
• "Muni Raises Fares, Cuts Service to Cover Deficit" (KTVU; May 1, 2009)

I also received an e-mail from one of my readers who works in the City and County of San Francisco and it mentioned that they know a pass hike is going to happen (courtesy of e-mails from the city's commuter benefits contractor). The person also provided his/her opinion: "Muni seems to be silent on the topic."

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My question to SFMTA/Muni: Where is the official notice to the public about the adult Fast Pass price increase?

The media can claim there will be a hike, but no official notice from the agency makes it difficult for the public to know if it is true or not.

Do they know the consequences of NOT providing ample notice of a pass cost increase?

• Commuter benefits companies must know ahead of time so they can inform their users and update their websites where people place their orders.
  
• Employees who uses commuter benefits must notify their HR or payroll supervisor with ample time (at least one month before a hike) to raise their pre-tax deduction from their payroll. At SF State, employees have until November 30th to make any deduction changes to be effective for January.
  
• For Commuter Check Direct users, the last day to make any changes for your January passes/tickets/checks is December 5th (as long as you give notice to your payroll/HR department).
  
• People who receive paper commuter benefits vouchers will be shocked that they are $5 to $15 short and must pay the remainder in cash. Remember, pre-taxed from your paycheck saves about 20%, but paying extra in cash is considered post-tax.
  
• TransLink card management must make proper adjustments to their computer software to reflect a major change. That takes time to reprogram versus printing new passes with a different cost and giving them to vendors.
  

Our public transit agency cannot give us late notice of changes. Here's a couple of not so timely changes:

• Muni posted their changes to many routes effective December 5th, but only provided the public just a month's notice (and a couple of days) of the changes.
  
• Muni failed to provide timely re-route information for 18-46th Avenue passengers due to the PGA Presidents Cup golf tournament at Harding Park. The re-routes started on Tuesday and they posted it online ONE DAY before the re-routes were in effect.
  

You can't give less than two months notice to people of a pass hike due to the major affect it will have on the public who uses commuter benefits.

Here's a lesson for Muni:

• "Early" is on-time.
• "On-Time" is late.
• "Late" is a pissed-off public.

How do I evaluate Muni's performance with providing timely notice about changes to their routes and fare structure? They FAILED. Public/government relations my ass.