WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) -- The November referendum on whether or not to continue municipal bus service from Wausau to Weston, Rothschild, and Schofield can also have an impact on Wausau residents. Transit Director Greg Seubert says if the referendum fails and service is discontinued, Wausau Metroride customers will likely see their fares go up. “The fare increase is likely if, in fact, the referendum fails in Weston, and the reason for that is we all share in our overhead costs, and if we don’t have partners to share in those costs, it shifts costs to the City of Wausau.”
Seubert says the other problem with raising bus fares is it tends to affect ridership, especially those who ride the bus by choice but have other options. He says if the price is higher, this group of riders may just choose to travel by other means. “We do have what’s called an elasticity model that we apply, which calculates the loss of ridership related to an increase in fares, and the general rule of thumb is that for every 3% you raise the fare, you lose 1% of your ridership, and over the years, that has been fairly accurate.”
Seubert says he is still anticipating the plan called “Scenario Six” which makes minor changes to the “K” route to the south metro area. He told the Transit Commission Thursday that ending pickups from each route every half hour and alternating the routes with half of the buses just won’t work for many reasons. “If you don’t have inside waiting at your transit center facility, and we do not, that’s really an untenable situation for your passengers, particularly when it’s 30 below, so we discounted that service cut scenario, so the only change we’d be looking at for the service that would remain in Wausau does not have to do with the routes themselves, but has to do with the passenger fares.
If Weston drops bus service, Wausau Metroride adult customers will be asked to pay $1.75 instead of $1.50 cash, pay $10.00 instead of $9.00 for 10 tokens, and raise the monthly pass two dollars to $38.00. There are also raises planned for students and for elderly and disabled riders.
The Commission decided to hold public hearings about all of the possible options for continuing or cutting bus service before the referendum, because they will need that information immediately after the November 4th vote to implement changes before New Years’ Eve. They have tentatively set October 16th durin