With a couple recent threads about fares, I thought it would be interesting to find out how much it actually costs people. So post your city, fare, any discounts or special fares, etc. Here's a cut & paste to make it easier:

City/Transit Company:

Bus, train or other:

Regular or full fare (price):

Transfers (price):

Discount fares (price):

Comments:

City/Transit Company:CATA/Lansing, MI

Bus, train or other:bus

Regular or full fare (price):$1.25

Transfer amount (price): free for two

Discount fares (price):.65 for senior, h.c. About $60 for 30 day pass

Comments:

From the DC area:

Metrorail:
Regular fare (In effect on weekdays from opening to 9:30 a.m. and 3-7 p.m. and weekends 2 a.m. to closing)

* $1.75 minimum
* $4.60 maximum

Reduced fare (All other times)

* $1.45 minimum
* $1.95 mid-range
* $2.45 maximum

Metrobus:

* $1.35 using SmarTrip®
$1.45 using cash
* $3.10 express routes using SmarTrip®
$3.20 express routes using cash
* Senior/disabled fare is 65¢

Central Arkansas Transit (CAT)

Cash Fare

Adult Fare $1.35
*Discount One-Way .65
Children 5-11 One-Way .60
Children 4 & Under FREE when accompanied by adult
Transfers .05


Pre-Paid Fare

Adult 31-Day Pass $36.00
One Day Pass 3.75
Adult 10-Ride Card 11.50
*Discount 31-Day Pass 18.00
*Discount 10-Ride Card 5.75
**31-Day Student Pass 19.50

Des Moines :

Adults $1.50 Express Route Fares $1.75

Children 6 thru 10 $0.75

Children 5 & under (must be accompanied by an adult) FREE

Transfers - Request when boarding. Valid 2 hours after issued.FREE

Reduced Fare* or Medicare Card Holder $0.75



Lansing seems to be pretty reasonable.

I think the fares are very similar. The city bus that travels less than 5 miles will cost under $1.50 or the same price as the trolley did in 1900. The infation caculator states that 5 cents in 1900 is $1.27 today! In my opinion, we are not paying much at all for pubic transit.

Since I use many different bus and rail services, my cost are different each day. I prefer to vary my trip and no longer look at the cost of the fare box anymore. There's nothing worst than taking the same bus or train each day to work.

I now enjoy the bus, expecially express service. The other day, I boarded a bus that I had not taken in 10 years. The memories of years gone by just filled my mind for days.

I live in Germantown MD and took the subway in to work a couple times back in 2002.

City/Transit Company: Washington DC metro.

Bus, train or other:Subway and bus

Regular or full fare (price):rush hour fare. 4.80 round trip subway. 1.00 bus, 3.00 parking (back in 2002.) so 8 bucks total.

Transfers (price):

Discount fares (price):

Comments: The trip took 45-60 minutes each way then I had to drive home 15 miles. It was cheaper to just drive in to work and it took less time even with traffic.

City/Transit Company: TTC (City of Toronto Transit Commission)

Bus, train or other: bus, subway and trolley

Regular or full fare (price): $3, or $2.50 each in bulk (rush hour express bus, double fare)

Transfers (price): free

Discount fares (price): Students, elderly, $2, children $0.75, also cheaper in bulk




City/Transit Company: GO Transit (Greater Toronto Area regional)

Bus, train or other: "coach" buses, trains

Regular or full fare (price): varies by distance. Toronto-Brampton 40 km, $4.65,. Toronto-Peterborough 140 km $13

Transfers (price): N/A

Discount fares (price): don't know

Comments: I like that GO has distance based fares. I think it's unfair that on the TTC someone who rides 30 km across towm pays the same fare as someone who rides 2 km, but at least I am glad they are not driving.

Vancouver has a distance-based system. based on zones. There are three zones. Travel within one zone is one rate, within two zones is higher and across all three is the highest.

Does Toronto have something similar? If you live in Toronto itself and go to the airport, don't you end up paying a second fare?

Depends on where I am at:

Nearest town to where I live:

City/Transit Company: F.A.S.T.(what a misnomer in more ways than one) Fayetteville Area System of Transit

Bus, train or other:Buses only

Regular or full fare (price):$1.00

Transfers (price):Free

Discount fares (price): Elderly/Disabled $.35 Children 36" and under ride free. 30 day passes are $30 Students $25 Elderly/Disabled $11.70

Comments: Limit operations area based on a spoke system only run on the hour on the major routes, some secondary routes they run 2-3 buses an hour from 0700-1000 then shut down until 1400-1700.

Aaron

Nope. Within the city it is all one fare. The airport is just outside the city limits but the bus route does extend there with no extra payment. However, it's not feasible to take a regular TTC bus to the airport - too far, too many stops, too slow. You can take a coach for about $5 from the airport to the subway or about $10 to downtown hotels. It used to be private company but I think GO transit may run it now. There will be a rapid transit link within a few years. You're ahead of us in that regard.

City/Transit Company: TCL, Lyon France

Bus, train or other: Bus, Metro, bike share

Regular or full fare (price): 1.60 euros, monthly pass 48 euros, bike (1 euro/day free for first 30min, or 24 euros/year)

Transfers (price): free within an hour

Discount fares (price): student discount (183/year, 90/year for younger students), senior discount (35.60/month or 26.20/month/person for couples), unemployed (15 euros/month, a bit unsure about this one, but a friend has one)

Comments: Pretty good system over all. The major downside? Frequent strikes....

City/Transit Company: Seoul, South Korea

Bus, train or other: Subway and Bus

Regular or full fare (price): 900 Won (about $0.83)

Transfers (price): free between buses and subways within 30 minutes of departure.

Discount fares (price): I have no idea. I think free for students or seniors but not sure.

Comments: The 900 won price includes anywhere within about 30 minutes of where you are at. Longer trips cost 1,300 Won ($1.15) but that is that max it could cost.

Another great feature are the long distance express buses that run from Seoul to nearly every city in the nation. I can take a bus from Seoul to Busan (on the other side of the country (about 4.5 hours by bus) for about $20). Amazing!

The best part of the system is the T-Money card which you just swipe at and subway line or when you get on any bus. You can add money to your T-money card online or at the subway stations. Also, many taxis also accept T-money. It is also now being accepted at most convenience stores and movie theaters. It is also a free service after you buy the card for $1.50.

Man, Denver's is expensive compared to the others posted so far:

City/Transit Company: Regional Transportation District of Denver, CO

Bus, train or other: Bus or Light Rail Train

Regular or full fare (price):
Local bus or two LRT zones: $2.00
Express bus or three LRT zones: $3.50
Regional bus or four LRT zones: $4.50

Transfers (price):
Free to service of same or lower level. Pay difference to upgrade service

Discount fares (price):
(Applies to seniors 65+, medicare recipients, people with disabilities, and students aged 6-19)
Local bus or two LRT zones: $1.00
Express bus or three LRT zones: $1.75
Regional bus or four LRT zones: $2.25

Comments:

There's also a skyride bus that takes you to the airport. Costs are $8, $10, or $12 depending where you pick it up.

RTD offers ticket books and monthly passes that make things a little cheaper. My monthly pass for work which uses an express bus costs me $128.

I miss when I was a student in college. We paid $45/semester for unlimited pass anywhere in the city on bus or LRT.

City/Transit Company: Miami-Dade County Florida Public Transit System

Bus, train or other:Bus, Metro-Mover, Metro Train, Tri Rail Train(runs from Miami to West Palm Beach)

Regular or full fare (price): Bus or Metro-Train $2.00 for any distance, Metromover Downtown Circulator Train--Free, Tri-Rail Train--Approx $3.50-$6.00(depends on distance)

Transfers (price): No Transfers. Miami instuted a prepaid Smart Card last year and transfer to bus/rail and rail to bus are included if used within 3 hours of primary boarding.

Discount fares (price): There are discount rates not sure of amounts.

Comments: Senior and Veterans get a Free Golden Pass, Vets over 62 like myself get a free Golden Patriot pass good for all travel county wide. Disabled residents also get a Free Transit pass. Many cities in Dade County have small free Buses that stop at major points like the major supermarkets, Walmarts, malls ect. After reading another post I must add our City Buses have a 2 Bike Rack on the front of the Buses for bicyclists. The Metro-mover train, Metrorail train and the 3 county trirail train also allow cyclists to bring their Bikes aboard. We have to use the last car and this is not a problem. I also have a small duffle bag so at times I have folded my Dahon Mu Uno and bagged it carrying it aboard our city buses.
An unusual fact many residents aren't aware of here in Miami is that a person can travel all the way down to Key West on City Buses for under $5 from downtown Miami. Travel all the way from Northern Palm Beach county to Key West via public transportation can be had for under $10 one way. Our Miami City bus takes a traveler down to Marathon Florida(by the k-mart) then a Key West city bus picks you up at that point and takes you the rest of the way down to KW. This is simply an incredible bargain and I will use it next week to see the key West Navy Fleet week at the KW Navy Airstation. This is a 220 mile RT via city buses(miami to KW).

Island of Oahu: Fare $2.25 including one transfer. Monthly pass: $50. July 1, fare goes to $2.50, Monthly pass to $60. Senior citizens and the disabled can get an annual pass for $30. The buses go everywhere on the island and all buses have bike racks that hold two or three bicycles.

City / Transit Company: Helsinki, Finland: private bus companies (various), Helsinki City Transport (HKL, metro, ferries, trams), Finnish Railways (VR, trains), Helsinki Regional Transport (regional planning, co-ordination between various transit companies, regional fare system etc)

Bus, train or other Bus, train, tram, metro, ferry.

Regular or full fare (price) Pricing system is... err... comprehensive, to put it nicely. Price depends on which of the three zones is/are covered, method of payment and ticket type. The prices below are for single tickets, no discounts. The version of travel card we use can hold a balance for purchasing tickets as a debit card.
- within one zone: 2,5€ from the driver (1,7€ with debit card), 2€ from ticket vending machine or mobile phone (available for Zone 1 only).
- 2 zones: 4€ from the driver (3,37€ with debit card)
- 3 zones: 6,2€ from the driver (5,2€ with debit card)

Transfers Free transfer for 60 mins (1 zone ticket) / 80 mins (2 zones) or 100 mins (3 zones). Transfer to more zones than your original ticket is valid for = buy new ticket. In practice, you buy your ticket zoned according to your final destination, then transfer as needed.

Discount fares (price) A myriad of those. Most commuters buy a fixed calendar period for their travel card and for the zones needed, allowing them to use any and all public transport vehicles available in those zones during that time. The validity period can be anywhere between 14-366 days. For me, a 2 zones ticket for 14 days would be 46,5€. For full 366 days I would pay 982,8€.

Children between the age of 7-16 years pay half the price. Students and senior citizens likewise. People with certain disabilities get 25% discount.

For tourists in zones 1 and 1+2, there are 1-7 day travel cards. Prices range from about 6€ (one day, zone 1) to 48€ (7 days, both zones).

Free pass: children younger than 7, one parent per baby stroller, one accompanying person per wheelchair bound passenger, 100% blind person and their assistant, people with injuries received during war time, and war veterans.

An employer can buy a regional ticket for an employee. It's cheaper for both parties than an equivalent amount in salary.

Comments: I commute by bike for the most part of the year. For winter months I usually buy a period of calendar time nevertheless, in case of particularly nasty weather or such. For the rest of the year, I have maybe 4-5 tickets' worth of balance in the travel card, for the occasional trip.

The system is fairly complicated, but there's extensive coverage over a relatively large geographical area. Schedules are as frequent as one can reasonably expect. Worst part is figuring out what would currently be the best ticket type / validity period in any given circumstances. Once that is over and done with, it's smooth sailing. All vehicles have RFID remote readers for travel cards, so there's minimal hassle. IMO, costs are reasonable considering the service level.

--J

Austin, Texas

Bus: Free!
Train: Free! (train service here is new and extremely limited)

"Free," since the local metro authority has a deal with my college, and I'm an employee of said college. Pretty good deal, I'd say. Otherwise, $1 for one trip, or $2 for a 24-hour pass on the bus.

For my commute, I pay $60/ month to ride with my folder from New Haven to Bridgeport, unlimited.

Local busses are $1.25

City/Transit Company:
Sacramento RTA
Bus, train or other:
Bus and Light Rail
Regular or full fare (price):
$2.50 per ride
$6.00 daily pass
$100.00 monthly pass
Transfers (price):
Full price
Discount fares (price):
$1.25
Comments:
My employer pays 75% on our RT tickets/passes. That's nice.
They aren't raising prices this summer (so far) but they keep eliminating buses and routes. They just pretty much killed off weekend buses.

City/Transit Company: Minneapolis MN
Bus, train or other: Bus
Regular or full fare (price): $2.25 at rush hour
Transfers (price): 0
Discount fares (price): $1.75 non-rush hour
Comments: When I bike to work, I save a firm dollar per day over driving, based on the cost of gasoline, mileage of the car, distance I would go in the car (not the same as I would go by bike), etc. If I want to juggle the books a bit, I could say that I "save" $4.50 a day based on the bus fare I didn't spend.

Bay area rapid Transit, SF Bay area, Ca

Minimum Fare: $1.75 (last time I road, it went up more than twice in one year so I gave up)
Maximum Fare: $7.05

Those are one way trips and for $1.75 you can get a max of about 10 miles (its a single station, so usually its more like 1-2 mi).
Busses are about the same, but they arent distance dependent, its just how much of your life you want to waste waiting for a bus that is more than likely just going to drive straight past you. Oh, and you cant take bikes on Bart during commute hours because they refuse to put bike cars in and the rest of them get packed to the gills.

City/Transit Company: Philadelphia / SEPTA (SE Pennsylvania Transportation Authority)

Bus, train or other: bus, train, and subway inside the city

Regular or full fare (price):$2

Transfer amount (price): free at some stops, $0.75 otherwise

Discount fares (price):. $1.45 per ride if you buy 2 tokens. About $80 for a monthly pass within the city (gets more expensive for regional rail stops)

Comments: Philadelphians like to call our beloved transit system SCHLEPTA or INEPTA. I actually started bike commuting full-time (instead of taking the subway) during a week-long transit strike last November. They seem to happen every 5 years or so, when the union contract has to be renewed.