A few of the passes sold by Metro.

The new “peak of the peak” surcharge is forcing Metro to adapt their existing weekly rail passes, which offer free rides up to $2.65 for the “Short Trip Pass” and free rides of any length for the Fast Pass.

At a WMATA Board committee meeting last week, staff announced their intention to let the passes apply during “peak of the peak” periods, but the passes will cost an additional $2 per week.

This will result in little change for most riders who use the pass to ride during the most crowded hours. Their fares were going up 15% plus the 20¢ surcharge each way anyway, so the new pass price costs the same compared to the price of ten one-way rides.

But for the riders that don’t normally ride during peak times, the passes just became more expensive relative to the cost ten one-way rides. In essence, Metro assumes that everyone using the pass will be paying the peak of the peak surcharge.

Since Metro only sells three weekly passes, they had little choice. An unlimited weekly rail pass including the price of the peak surcharge would alienate those who use the pass but don’t ride during peak, while selling the unlimited pass without the surcharge would allow pass riders to avoid the surcharge altogether.

A third option would have been to require the pass riders to pay the surcharge in cash at the Addfare machine, as they do when Short Trip Pass holders take longer trips, which would be a communications as well as a logistical nightmare for passengers.

This complication highlights the need for flexible passes. Once passes become available on SmarTrip cards, Metro is going to look at redesigning the passes to take advantage of the flexibility the electronic farecards allow.

In previous articles, I made some recommendations regarding passes, some of which included interesting but complicated additional thoughts regarding bulk and volume pricing. This time, I’m going to keep it as simple as possible.

Recommendation 1: Metro should let you choose a fare level (the “face value”), and then sell you a weekly pass for ten times the face value. The pass would be good for any ride less than that face value.

Recommendation 2: Metro should allow these passes to be used on any transit in the system. If the face value is over $1.50, it should work as a regular bus pass. If it’s $5.00, it should work as an unlimited rail pass. Since the longest bus and rail ride including peak surcharge is $5.00 + $1.00 + $0.20, an “Unlimited Everything” pass should cost $62.00 per week.

Recommendation 3: Metro should establish an agreement with regional transit partners to transfer $1.00 to their account for the use of a pass on their buses. While the exact amount will be subject to negotiations, this is probably close to the average fare for the bus system after the recent fare increase, and it’s the transfer fare.

Recommendation 4: Metro should consider bringing back the monthly pass at a price of four times the weekly pass, or forty times the face value.

With this system, Metro’s pass system becomes simpler at the same time it becomes a perfect fit for any customer. No longer will Metro have to set the prices for two kinds of rail passes, a bus pass and their equivalents for elderly and disabled. We have reflected the region’s goals once in the fare structure, charging more for peak service and for rail compared to bus. Now the pass system will reflect exactly the same values and goals without additional administration.

Michael Perkins blogs about Metro operations and fares, performance parking, and any other government and economics information he finds on the Web. He lives with his wife and two children in Arlington, Virginia.