• Nov. 16, 2008Residents unload anger at failing transit

  More than 600 people gave up a sunny Saturday to talk about the shortcomings of the local transit system in spite of a half-cent sales tax that was supposed to build new rail lines to every corner of the county.
  

• Nov. 14, 2008Officials admit transit tax failed

  Miami-Dade officials will publicly discuss how the 2002-approved transit tax failed to deliver its promises and what are the options left on the table.
  

• Aug. 25, 2008Proposed cuts a blow for riders

  The hits keep coming for Miami-Dade Transit's beleaguered riders and the voters who supported a half-cent sales tax in 2002 with the promise of expanded rail and bus service.
  

• July 28, 2008North Metrorail plan sure to fail again

  Barring a highly unlikely miracle, the Metrorail North Corridor extension along Northwest 27th Avenue through the heart of the black community is as good as dead for at least another year.

• July 17, 2008Expansion at risk

  Miami-Dade's deficit-plagued Transit agency has new problems -- 9.4 billion of them -- that put the dream of expanding Metrorail at risk.

Trying to save a failing transit system without pricing passengers out of public transportation, a sharply divided Miami-Dade Commission agreed Tuesday to increase fares 33 percent.

Commissioners, in the 6-5 vote, aimed to spare the deficit-ridden, scandal-plagued bus system from draconian cuts. Yet the move is a largely short-term salve that can't solve all of the agency's long-term problems.

The county agreed to raise base fares from $1.50 to $2, effective Oct. 1. Monthly passes will increase from $75 to $100 and discount fares for the disabled, Medicare patients and students will rise from $37.50 to $50.

The vote followed four hours of back-and-forth debate, with the splintered commission showing little consensus on how to solve one of Miami-Dade's most pressing public problems.

The outcome might have been different if two commissioners who did not support the fare increase -- Rebeca Sosa and Jose "Pepe" Diaz -- didn't have to leave the chambers early, missing the final vote.

Commissioner Barbara Jordan, who has been trying to right the transit agency's troubled financial outlook and rescue a proposed Metrorail line through her district in North Central Miami-Dade, told her colleagues they were elected to make difficult decisions.

"We've been debating this for months," Jordan said. "It's time to fish or cut bait."

Jordan noted that commissioners had raised fares only once since December 1990 -- a 25-cent increase from $1.25 to $1.50 in April 2005.

FULL FARES RARE

The problem: Only 25 percent of transit passengers pay full fares. One-third of the passengers are riding for free -- many of them seniors using the Golden Passport initiated when voters approved a half-cent sales tax in 2002 -- and another 42 percent are paying deeply discounted fares.

"Seventy-five percent of the riders are riding for free or paying half fares," Jordan said. "What kind of business can survive on that? None."

The vote was historic in one other regard: All future fare hikes will be tied to increases in the Consumer Price Index, not a commission vote.

Commissioners Katy Sorenson, Audrey Edmonson, Carlos Gimenez, Dennis Moss and Dorrin Rolle joined Jordan in support of the fare hike.

Commissioners Javier Souto, Joe Martinez, Natacha Seijas, Bruno Barriero and Sally Heyman voted against it. Heyman was pushing for a 25-cent increase.

Earlier, commissioners voted 9-4 to raise the monthly parking rate at Metrorail stations from $6.25 to $10. Sosa, Souto, Diaz and Barreiro voted against it.

County managers and transit agency administrators said the fare and parking fee hikes will raise between $18 million and $22 million next year.

The extra revenue will likely spare, for now, most of the 15 popular routes that were poised to be eliminated next year along with weekend service on three others.

"We can't afford this," Gary Price, a transit-dependent North Dade resident, said of the fare increase. "But I'd rather pay 50 cents more to ride the bus if it's a choice between that and having no bus at all."

As news of the potential route cuts spread through the community over the last month, elected leaders were overwhelmed with complaints from transit patrons and protests orchestrated by the Transport Workers Union Local 291.

While commissioners dealt with the immediate issue, they delayed for the most part the bigger issues that continue to loom over the future of public transportation in Miami-Dade.

They avoided, for now, several politically unpopular decisions that will still be required to fill a $9.4 billion, 30-year hole in the transit agency's long-range budget if Miami-Dade wants to expand Metrorail through the heart of the black community along Northwest 27th Avenue and from Miami International Airport to the western suburbs.

Those plans are as good as dead for the foreseeable future. Commissioners aren't willing, at this point, to raise property taxes and gas taxes, reinstate discounted fares for seniors or undo other core promises from the 2002 campaign that created the half-cent sales tax.

SUMMIT PROPOSED

Moss wants to hold a summit meeting to allow the public to vent about all of the broken promises and squandered opportunities from the 2002 campaign -- and then start the conversation to prioritize the community's transportation needs with a more realistic financial outlook.

At this point, several promises from 2002 -- free rides for seniors, free Metromover for everyone, and sharing 20 percent of the gross proceeds with municipalities -- appear to be safe.

But County Manager George Burgess is still pushing for commissioners to undo another key component and "unify" the transit agency's revenue streams.

Critics says that unifying the system will allow county managers to use the sales-tax proceeds for routine operations and not dedicate it to new projects and expanded service as former Mayor Alex Penelas promised in 2002.

Burgess counters that the situation has deteriorated to the point where the transit agency is going to be forced to cut productive routes that were in the system prior to 2002 while keeping less productive routes that were added after the tax passed.

Miami Herald staff writer Matthew I. Pinzur contributed to this report.