San Francisco officials plan cable car price hike

Press, 11 July 1988, Page 17

San Francisco officials plan cable car price hike

By

JOHN HUTCHISON

San Francisco

Tourists do not vote. That, said an indignant editor, is why San Francisco officials have the gall to ask that the fare on the city’s famously popular and (infamously dangerous) cable cars be raised to SUS2.SO. The fare is already SUSI.SO. The new fare proposed by the Public Utilities Commission, would be raised to SUS2.SO. That would mean that “a couple with two children will have to pay $lO to ride from Market Street to Fisherman’s Wharf,” complained the “San Francisco Chronicle.” (Taxi fare for that distance is about $5.) “City Hall is about to pluck the golden goose,” said the “San Francisco

Examiner,” under a headline asking, "A $2.50 fare? Are they kidding?” Tourists may be the only large bloc in San Francisco, without a special interest lobby, the newspaper said. Both papers said that tourists were not a political constituency in San Francisco, and that elderly people were. Senior citizens can ride the cable cars for 15c, and most of those who do are residents eligible to vote here. They have a vociferous and effective lobby. The commission proposes to raise their fare to 25c, and they are protesting against that. If the new fare is approved, said the “Examiner,” the cost for most cable-car riders will have gone up 50 times in the last 50 years. The inference that all seniors are

impoverished is flawed and a poor justification for a subsidy based on politics, the paper said. Let them pay a fairer share.

On the coach and tram lines of the city, the present fare for non-elderly passengers will be raised from 75c to 85c, “arid it is headed for $l,” the “Examiner” predicted. The Municipal Railway which runs all the public transportation has been accused for many years of inefficient operation and chaotic personnel policies. In 1984, San Francisco completed a modernization of the rickety but exciting cable car system. The work was meant to correct what was regarded as an inadmissibly dangerous mode of travel across the steep hills. The routes were shut down for

22 months while the rebuilding was done. As well as being unqualified to vote here, tourists are unlikely . to have learned about that accident, nor are the locals much inhibited by concern for the safety of the cars, although they have to compete with the tourist hordes to find room to sit or stand on the popular contraptions. At peak hours they, like the visitors, stand patiently in long queues to climb aboard, jamming the cars inside and clinging to the outside. The locals who are not old enough for special privileges may rebel at paying $2.50, but they can be confident that the tourists will cheerfully pay whatever they have to for the thrills and scenery of one of the greatest rides in the world.