It is understandable that the city of Durango is unwilling to continually lose money subsidizing the free trolley. But to go from free to $1 is a steep increase, especially considering how many of the trolley’s passengers are young folks.
The City Council should rethink that move. There are alternatives that could help mitigate the impact the fare increase could have on kids and low-wage workers.
For starters, the City Council should explicitly articulate exactly what it thinks the shuttle is meant to do. That should influence any decision about fares.
If the trolley’s purpose is to bring tourists to downtown’s galleries and restaurants, then the $1 fare is perfectly reasonable. Four dollars to get a couple to and from a dinner date is a small percentage of what they might spend that night, more convenient than parking and does away with the whole drinking-and-driving issue.
If its purpose is to get low-wage workers from older North Main motels that have been converted to affordable housing to their downtown jobs, the answer might be different. Two bucks a day could be $40 a month or more. That does not sound like much, but it is real money for many workers.
It could have even more meaning for kids. A casual observer looking at the parking lot at Durango High School or Purgatory on a powder day might conclude that Durango is an affluent community full of rich kids. And there is that element.
But it is also true that there are more than a few families that struggle with this area’s relatively low wages, expensive housing and generally high costs. For most folks, at least at some point, this is tough place to make a living.
What is more, the children of those families are probably the most likely to use and to need the trolley and the rest of the city’s transit offerings. City councilors should give that more thought.
As it happens, though, the answers may already be before them. The city has in place a multilevel program to offer reduced-cost fares for low-income families, seniors and the disabled and students.
In one program, the city sells transit passes on a monthly or annual basis. There are some apparent inconsistencies in the current pricing structure, but the idea is sound and offers a good starting point for expanding access to the trolley and the overall transit system, especially for kids.
What might be needed is a bit more outreach. For instance, do the schools tell students that they can get an annual transit pass for only $30? For anyone who actually uses the service, that works out a lot different than $1 per trip. In fact, for a frequent rider, that works out statistically little different than free. So, why not just let students and kids ride at no cost? Adults who can afford it, which would of course include tourists, can fork over the buck.
Then, too, there is a program through which the city sells passes to civic organizations that pass them on to their clients. Among the groups are the Manna Soup Kitchen, Axis Health and the Salvation Army. The total number of such free passes exceeds 9,000.
That is worthwhile. And the city has wisely reduced what it charges for them from 90 cents per pass to 45 cents.
The trolley, like the other transit services, serves a need. And the city has recognized the merit of helping the disabled, seniors and the disadvantaged. It should simply expand that effort further to include more effort to help the trolley’s youngest users.
