BART riders may soon be paying more to ride BART but not getting anything better out of it. BART’s Board of Directors held a public hearing last Thursday, April 28 to get an idea of what the public had to say about their proposed solutions to their budget woes.

According to BART’s press release online, they are facing a $30.4 million deficit in the 2006 Fiscal Year, which begins July 1. To help remedy that problem BART has proposed several fee increases as well as cuts in discounts.

One of the proposed increases according to BART’s revenue enhancements memorandum was instituting a daily paid parking fee that will be implemented at all East Bay stations as well as possibly several other stations.

In addition to parking fees, there is also a proposed $0.15 fee increase for BART tickets along with a 3.7 percent increase that goes into affect January 6, 2006.

Discounts for seniors, the disabled as well as youth is also proposed to be decreased from the current 75 percent to the proposed 50 percent.

Janice Taylor, a Comparative Literature major said of BART, “It’s really expensive now.”

Taylor, who is from the East Coast, said that over there, the government contributes to public transportation. She added, “I don’t understand why the government doesn’t contribute over here.”

Already paying $7.30 for a round trip fare from Albany to SF State, Taylor said that BART should at least have a student fare. Taylor said that if the fees increase, the number of people riding BART would be lowered.

Courtney Coulson, an Art major, agrees and says that BART should have a student discount. Coulson, who rides BART and bus to school, said that she would be worried if fares went up for MUNI as well as BART.

“It feels kind of high already,” Coulson said.

Coulson added that without her bus passes, she would be paying $5 round trip just to get to school.

Chris Alegre, a Business major said his initial reaction upon reading about the fare increases was, “that’s pretty steep.”

Alegre who switches off between taking the BART to school and driving, said he first heard about the increase while reading a newspaper. He said the first thing he saw was a headline stating that BART could soon cost $20 per day to ride.

Alegre said that he already pays $6.20 round trip from Oakland. He said, “It’s the Bay Area.”

He added that everything is going up from the cost of bridge toll and now BART to tuition, which is supposed to increase again. However, wages are remaining the same or getting lower.

Mary Fernandez, Biology major, is a mother as well as a full time student. She said that if the proposed increases went through, she would have to stop riding BART and drive to school instead.

“It would suck,” she said.

Fernandez said that financially, more money would have to go to transportation and everything would have to be scheduled earlier.

To make it to class on time, she would have to leave earlier to beat traffic and find parking which means less time in the morning for her baby and other things.

She added that if these increases did go into effect, BART would go out of business because it would be pointless; people wouldn’t want to ride BART.

“I wouldn’t ride BART, I would take the cheapest route,” Fernandez said.

The April 28 meeting was really to get the public’s reaction on the proposed increases. BART’s Board of Directors will be making their final decision either at their May 26 meeting or their June 9 board meeting.