Evening star., 1952-07-08
Transit Is Told
To oIncIude Pass
In Fare Petition
PUG Action Indicates
1t Fuvors Retention
Of Weekly Ticket

~ VVSNty ItSNSt
The District Public Utilities
Commission today indicated it is
interested in retaining the weekly
Streetcar and bus pass of the Cap
ital Transit Co.
AS the company's fare increase
hearing went into its second day,
PUG Chairman James H. Flan-
agan suggested that transit Off
cialS draft proposed fare increase
schedules that would take the
weekly passes into account.
The company has based its fare
petition on a 17-cent cash fare
and tokens at six for 95 cents and
complete abolition of the present
$2.10 pass.
Two Citizens Heard.
The company closed it's case at
noon after two citizens argued for
retention of the weekly pass. The
two witnesses contended that dis
pensing of passes would result in
slowing transportation due to the
greater time needed for cash and
token transactions.
On the request of PUG Counsel
Lloyd Harrison, the commission
suspended the hearing until July
%. On that date croSS-examina-
tion of company witnesses by the
company attorney will begin.
Today's hearing was attended
by a Scant dozen spectators. OF
these only Herbert w. Bryce, rep
resenting the Northeast Boundary
Civic Association, and James C.
Carr, ST., of the Central Northeast
Civic Association rose to testify.
They stated the citizens case for
retention of the pass.
More Time Needed.
Company Vice President E. c..
Giddings said it will probably take
company experts a couple of days
to prepare new schedules for
presentation to the PUG.
Washington is one of only two
cities that sells unlimited weekly
passes to transit riders. Milwau-
kee is the other. Two other cities,
Kansas City and St. Louis, have
passes which require, however,
small cash payments with each
ride.
Chairman Flanagan'S sug-
gestion came in the middle of
testimony by Robert E. Harvey,
company vice president and con-
troller. Figuring on the basis of
abolition of the pass, Mr.. Harvey
estimated that 95 per cent of pres
ent pass purchasers would switch
to either cash or token fares.
These former pass users would
account, however, for an antici-I
pated increase of 80 million pas-I
sengers using tokens under the
proposed setup. There would bel
an increase of about 8 millionl
cash fares, the company figured.
Total number of passengers carl
ried by Capital Transit annually
would come to about 178 million,
exclusive of 98 million school
children, paying a continued
three-cent fare.
S29 Million Revenue Seen. =.
Total passenger revenues would
be expected to total $29 million
annually in the District. with an
additional $1.4 million from other
passenger revenue sources.
Mr.. Harvey said that per cent
of the people who now buy passes
would be totally lost to the COM
pany as a revenue source under
the proposed rate increase. More
over, 8 per cent of the people now
paying Is cents cash fare and 10
per cent who now buy tokens at
the rate of three for 40 cents would
likewise be lost for revenue pur-
poses. These expected declines
would be amply Offset by the
switch of pass purchasers to cash
and token fares.
The fare increase proposal
would give the company an oper-
ating income of SIT million, or a
7.49 per cent rate of return for
Capital Transit's District opera
tions. This percentage is just a
shade under the rs per cent rate
of return which the PUG fixed in
1941 as reasonable for the transit
company. The rate of return set
by the commission last year was
6.75 per cent.
Actually, according to company
spokesmen, Capital Transit isl
getting only a Al per cent rate
of return and that does not take
into account the company wage
increases granted last week. Un-
less the PUG grants a fare in
crease, the company stands to
realize only a 90 per cent rate
of return for this year taking into
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