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Tacoma Link fares start September

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[Update] Tacoma Link fare implementation delayed two years. Read more here.

Tacoma Link fares coming

Starting in September 2014

Fares

  • Adults                         $1
  • Youth (6-18)                75 cents
  • Children five and under ride free with a fare-paying customer.
  • Senior/disabled*           50 cents

*Requires Regional Reduced Fare Permit

How to pay

  • Use cash or an ORCA (One Regional Card for All) card to pay for your ride.
  • Ticket vending machines at all stations will sell train tickets and reload ORCA cards.
  • Machines accept cash, MasterCard or VISA. Give yourself extra time to use the machine before riding.
  • If you use ORCA, tap your ORCA card on a yellow card reader at the station platform before you get on the train. With a paper ticket, keep it with you throughout your ride.

Enforcement

  • Be ready to show your ORCA card or ticket to the fare enforcement officer if asked.
  • You may be fined $124 if you do not have a valid ticket or tap your ORCA card before your ride.

Transfers

  • When you transfer between Tacoma Link and another bus or train within two hours, ORCA will automatically credit the first fare toward the second ride.
  • Without an ORCA card, you will need to pay for each ride separately.

Learn how to get an ORCA card and about options for a monthly pass or e-purse to pay as you go at orcacard.com.

Background:

Tacoma Link, Sound Transit's only fare-free service, has provided free rides since it opened for service in 2003. Sound Transit Board policy allowed free fares on Tacoma Link because in the past, it would have cost more to collect fares than those fares would generate. Now that Tacoma Link provides about a million rides each year, that policy no longer applies.

In September 2013, the Sound Transit Board voted to begin charging fares to ride Tacoma Link beginning in September 2014. This action followed comprehensive public outreach in summer 2013 including an open house and public hearing in Tacoma.

Fares collected will cover a portion of operating costs.

Questions?

Visit:    soundtransit.org/TLinkfares

Email: fares@soundtransit.org

Call:     1-888-889-6368 (toll-free)

Sound Transit plans, builds and operates regional transit systems and services to improve mobility for Central Puget Sound.

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