BREAKING: Muni Proposes $5 Monthly Fee for Premium Services for Youth, Disabled, & Seniors

Director Beach of the SFMTA Board asked the agency's representative if the discount passes for seniors, youth, and disabled will be allowed to ride the express buses and cable cars. The representative has verified there will be an expanded variety of passes for this category (if the board approves):

• Youth, senior, and disabled "basic" pass only valid on local, limited, and metro.
• Youth, senior, and disabled "premium" pass also valid on Cable Cars and express buses.
  

The SFMTA Board has mentioned that the SF Board of Supervisors has already approved a pass hike for these three groups to be $20 a month starting May 1st, 2010.

But... a SFMTA employee on the microphone during the hearing stated there will be an additional $5 fee for access to Cable Cars and "peak hour" express lines. That gets my stomach churning. Ouch. An extra $60 a year for the right to ride express and cable cars.

Great, our vendors will have to now sell more types of passes. An "A" pass, "M" pass, three basic discount passes, and three premium discount passes. We'll be hearing the excuse more often: "I'm sorry, we don't have any more cheap passes."

In other news:

• The SFMTA Board repealed the increases to the discounted passes for $30 month.
• SFMTA representative verified all passengers who have the "M" pass who wants to ride an express will pay FULL $2 FARE.