Fare Increase

Appearing before the Public Transportation Board last night, Howard County cab companies pleaded their case for the first fare increase in nearly a decade.Four cab companies operate in Howard -- including Action Cabs, Mini-Star and Columbia -- and they each charge $6.60 for a five-mile ride.Last month, they requested a $2 increase for the same distance, a rate identical to that for cabs in Montgomery County. But County Executive James N. Robey called the request unacceptable.The board said it will discuss the request at its June 22 meeting.

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Northwest Airlines Corp. rescinded a 4 percent leisure fare increase on U.S. flights yesterday, reversing a surprising move in which the fourth-largest U.S. airline had spurred an industrywide price boost.Most major U.S. airlines increased fares on tickets purchased seven, 14 and 21 days in advance yesterday after Northwest initiated the boost. St. Paul, Minn.-based Northwest had declined to go along with previous increases by other carriers.Analysts had said they expected the fare increase, the seventh such attempt this year, to hold because Northwest is participating for the first time.

The Howard County Public Transportation Board has approved several measures to help keep afloat a bus service for disabled people that has become so successful its budget could run out as soon as April.The panel voted 5-0 Tuesday night to ask County Executive Charles I. Ecker to supplement the budget with an additional $30,000.The board also voted 4-0 -- with member Andrea Paskin abstaining -- to seek a fare increase from $1 to $2 for the Howard Area Transit Service (HATS) ADAPT program. The state Public Service Commission will make the final decision next month.

Ridership on the Baltimore area's bus, light rail and subway systems has risen more than 4 percent since March, when transit officials took the controversial step of raising fares and shortening some bus routes.Higher fares and more riders? The news defies an industry maxim that says, in essence, when you raise rates, you lose passengers."That definitely goes against the grain of what one would normally expect to happen after a fare increase," said Dennis M. Kouba, spokesman for the American Public Transit Association, an industry trade group in Washington.

As transit riders gear up to pay higher fares and grapple with changing bus routes today, irate passengers such as Queen Wilson can say they went down fighting.Mrs. Wilson and hundreds of other Mass Transit Administration riders are facing the facts that letter-writing campaigns, protest marches and rallies couldn't reverse the MTA's decision to increase fares by 8 percent while shortening some bus routes.The cost-cutting measures, which MTA officials say will close the gap between revenues and expenses, have hit Mrs. Wilson particularly hard.

Upset that the Mass Transit Administration will increase bus fares by 8 percent while reducing service, city riders are threatening to boycott, organize marches and file racial discrimination lawsuits in hopes of reversing the changes.At noon today, a grass-roots group plans to protest at the corner of Lexington and Eutaw streets -- an event that organizers say will launch a series of actions that they believe will force MTA officials to back down.Sharon Ceci, spokeswoman for the All People's Congress, which is spearheading today's protest, said the fare increase is unfair to low-income city riders.

WASHINGTON -- Fortunately, the mills of justice do indeed grind slowly. Many courts come to cockeyed conclusions, so it is best that they not come to them quickly.Consider a case that should have been laughed out of court before battalions of lawyers filed the first cubic foot of briefs, a case that may churn on and on and could come to a remarkable conclusion. If the plaintiffs prevail, America can dispense with elections because judges will determine all social policies.The trouble began in New York when the Metropolitan Transportation Authority decided to raise subway and bus fares 25 cents to $1.50.

With costs growing but overall ridership stagnant, the Mass Transit Administration is anticipating a 12 percent increase in the fares for bus, light rail and Metro service this fall to prevent a looming $7.5 million budget deficit.State officials have cautioned that the fare increase is not a certainty, and a decision won't be made whether to impose it until July or August. But unless cost-cutting efforts are highly successful or significantly more people start riding transit, the fare increase appears inevitable.

Despite complaints from some steamed customers, the fares on commuter trains go up on Monday.Mass Transit Administration officials announced yesterday that Maryland Rail Commuter (MARC) fares will rise 25 cents for a one-way base ticket and the discount for monthly passes will drop from 50 percent to 43 percent. That amounts to a 19 percent average fare increase.To the penny, the proposal is the same one that the MTA unveiled in July -- before conducting five public hearings.John A. Agro Jr., the MTA's administrator, said the decision does not mean the MTA ignored the concerns of its riders.

BELTSVILLE -- A proposed 19 percent average increase in commuter train fares is too much too soon and will cost the Maryland Rail Commuter system customers, some irate MARC riders warned state officials last night.The fare increase, scheduled to take effect Oct. 1, would raise the cost of a one-way ticket 25 cents and reduce the discount for holders of monthly and weekly passes.Commuters warned representatives of the Mass Transit Administration that service on the MARC system continues to be poor and that a fare increase would reduce ridership.