DCTA Lowers Fare Structure for Riders
As of Jan. 14, the Denton County Transportation Authority permanently lowered local fare structures for DCTA riders. The new local fare promotion is consistent with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit and Trinity Metro fare structures.
The biggest changes in the new fare structure are the prices and the time duration on the passes. Instead of a two-hour or midday pass, there is now an AM and PM pass available and both are $1.50 for adults and $0.75 for children, disabled and senior riders.
The AM pass is good from 3 a.m. to noon and the PM pass is good from noon to 3 a.m. This is a similar setup to what the DART and Trinity Metro have, only cheaper — the DART AM/PM adult passes are $3.00 and Trinity Metro’s day passes are $5.00.
“The great thing about it, in addition to lowering the price, is we simplify our fare structure moving to an AM and PM and removed our connect fares,” DCTA Communications Manager Adrienne Hamilton said. “This really reduces the need for transfers and allows for our riders to have more access to our services at a cheaper price.”
Other alterations include the removal of:
The Local Summer Youth Pass
All connect fares
Regional 7-day fare
All transfers/buy-ups
22-year-old Stephanie Diaz said she rides the DCTA A-train four times a week for her commute to Texas Woman’s University. Diaz rides from the Trinity Mills station located in Carrollton, Texas to the Downtown Denton station, the final stop on the DCTA rail line.
“I like that it’s [local fare] cheaper but I don’t know, I feel like I still spend as much [as before],” Diaz said. “It could be better, especially since they took off the free A-train rides. Right now I’m paying every day, but I’m thinking about getting the semester pass.”
Last semester, from Aug. 27, 2018 through Jan. 14, 2019, the DCTA offered universities such as TWU, the University of North Texas and North Central Texas College free A-Train rides. All students had to do was show their university-issued ID.
Riders can still purchase a DCTA University Pass, which is good for a full-single semester (130-140 days) at DCTA.net. The Local-Full Semester pass is $125 and the Regional-Full Semester pass is $150. Riders can also purchase the Local-Annual Local Pass at $300 and the Annual Regional Pass at $400.
DCTA rider Khadijah Leavy, 24, said she is saving money off the new permanent promotion but is paying about the same as she did last semester when the A-train rides were free.
“I want to say it’s saving money sort of because you know last semester they didn’t charge us for the train but we still had to pay for the buses,” the TWU student said. “So now that it is included, you are still paying the same price.”
Leavy travels on the DART rail from North Lake College station to Trinity Mills station and from there she gets on a DCTA A-train to get to Denton for school.
“DART is a lot higher [in price] so with the university pass it helps save me money,” Leave said. “But I think if I was just paying for DART and then separately paying for DCTA, it would be a lot more money. Say like today, I got on around twelve-something and I’m coming back at [4:30 p.m.] I wouldn’t have to pay a dollar coming each way, it’s just that $1.50 would cover that whole evening.”
Header image via Unsplash.
Header design by Kylie Phillips.