Photo by Flickr user Oran Viriyincy

At Seattle Transit Blog they’ve been talking about the fare structure for the new light rail system that’s going to run from downtown to the airport. Yesterday they reported that Sound Transit was considering calculating the fares based on the distance you travel: a base fee, plus a certain charge per mile. in this case, $2 plus five cents per mile (rounded to the nearest quarter). That would make traveling from downtown to the airport a very reasonable $2.75. Fares to other stops on the line would vary accordingly. One reader put together an estimated fare table, as seen above. And a lot of others had their own comments to add, on the original and a follow-up post.

This proposal would include keeping the tunnel through downtown a ride-free zone. Another idea they’re kicking around is to charge for the tunnel too, but lower all fares by 25 cents. So the base rate would start at $1.75. This would be confusing, though, since buses in the tunnel would be free but trains would cost. Either way, though, there’s the question of enforcement, and how to handle someone who boards in the free zone, then travels outside of it.

Still, these prices are pretty low, and less than similar light rail systems I’ve been on in Sacramento and San Francisco. I guess the distances in those system are greater, though, with BART running over nearly the whole Bay Area.

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