The Unlimited Access Pass Working Group is beginning to make significant progress towards improving these important pass programs, consistent with many of the goals I outlined in my run for the RTD Board. 

To get the ball rolling, the Working Group drafted a mission statement for the unlimited access pass programs:

Provides incentives for transit use and to increase mode share in a financially responsible manner.

This mission statement recongnizes the important marketing benefits that the unlimited access passes offer and their asset as a mechanism for expanding transit ridership.  At the same time, the mission statement recognizes the need RTD has to recoup sufficient revenue from the unlimited access pass programs to cover associated service costs.

The Working Group also reviewed RTD’s plans for implementing a system that will better capture the true use figures for each unlimited access pass.  Basically, the system will entail fare box meters that read a chip, embedded in all unlimited access passes, as passengers enter a bus or train platform.  RTD staff optimistically hopes to have these card reading systems in place by August, but by January at the latest.

Finally, the Unlimited Access Pass Working Group has embarked on an effort to identify short and long-term measures that RTD can adopt to improve administration of these pass programs.  The attached minutes from our fourth Working Group meeting highlight an initial list of improvements.  The intent is to supplement this list at our next meeting based on the input we will solicit over the course of the next month from stakeholders for each of the pass programs.  Please feel free to contact me directly, though this web site, if you want to offer your own suggested improvements.

After the Working Group makes some progress in the above areas, we will then begin to tackle the challenging goal of formulating a pricing policy for the unlimited access passes.  The approved mission for the unlimited access pass programs will serve as a framework for the draft pricing policy.  Ultimately, we hope to develop a proposed pricing formula that all stakeholders can accept, regardless of the usage rates that RTD collects through its new card reading system which ultimately will drive the pass costs.

Stay tuned . . .

Unlimited Access Pass Working Group – Meeting Summary #4