Judge Refuses to Lift Ban on MTA Fare Increases

A federal judge refused Tuesday to lift his preliminary injunction forbidding the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to raise bus and Blue Line trolley fares on the grounds that higher fares discriminate against the poor and minorities.

U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. let stand his decision last week to extend a court order blocking the MTA from abolishing its general monthly bus pass and increasing fares for the first time in six years.

Despite the agency’s contention that it is losing $110,000 daily without the fare increase, Hatter declined to stay his injunction or to agree to a compromise solution allowing the MTA to retain passes but raise the basic cash fare from $1.10 to $1.35.

MTA officials immediately filed a notice of appeal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court, although that panel previously refused to consider a similar appeal after Hatter rolled back the fare increase Sept. 1, just hours after the new prices went into effect.

Hatter agreed with a coalition of grass-roots organizations that the revamped fare structure might unfairly discriminate against minorities and the poor, who make up the bulk of the MTA’s bus ridership.

A full hearing on the coalition’s lawsuit against the MTA is scheduled for Oct. 17.

“It’s wonderful for us,” Martin Hernandez, a spokesman for one of the plaintiff groups, said of Hatter’s decision Tuesday. “The MTA has failed to show” why it should be allowed to raise fares, he said.

The agency contends that the fare increase is necessary to help eliminate a $126-million operating shortfall in its $2.9-billion budget this year. Hatter has said he will lift the injunction against the MTA at the Oct. 17 hearing if the agency can prove that its costly rail projects do not benefit affluent white residents at the expense of indigent bus riders.