Public comment triggered action as Regional Transportation District officials revised a major price hike proposal for the business EcoPass system.

The original proposal was to increase the EcoPass rate and to limit the lowest rate to businesses with 50 or more employees. However, the proposal that was presented to the RTD board of directors Sept. 30 included major changes in the pricing and availability of the EcoPass to smaller organizations and companies.

“People came to the public hearing and raised concerns about the EcoPass proposal,” said Scott Reed, RTD public affairs officer. “The staff worked up the latest recommendation. We feel is is a more reasonable proposal for the small business pass customers while still moving toward the goal of making pass fees more equitable with what cash fare customers pay.”

Reed said the latest proposal, scheduled to be presented to the RTD board for approval, recommends using the ValuPass, the district’s lowest-price pass available to the general public, as a basis for pricing annual passes for small businesses. A ValuPass is good for one year and the cost is the same as 11 regular monthly passes.

The proposal says small businesses with up to 10 employees would pay the cost of two annual passes for 10 passes. The price would double in 2009 and double again in 2010.

There are similar formulas for businesses with up to 20 employees and businesses with more than 20. The pass price also is based on the business location.

Reed said the proposal, along with some other other modification with the cost to use SkyRide with an EcoPass would raise between $960,000 and $1.3 million in additional revenues for RTD.

Colorado Center for the Blind director Julie Deden said she was pleased RTD had made changes to its original proposal for EcoPass pricing.

“We are a small, nonprofit agency and we are able to offer few benefits to our employees and, under the old rules, one of those benefits was a mass transit pass,” she said. “We have 10-15 employees and about 10 people who use the transit system every day. We understand the problem of dealing with rising costs and wouldn’t mind an increase in providing the passes. However, under the original proposal, the passes that cost us $2,600 this year would cost us $7,200 next year. That big a jump in pass costs means it won’t be possible for our agency to provide transit passes for our people. Quite a few of our people spoke against the changes in the EcoPass system at the RTD public hearings. I am very pleased at the changes RTD is making to the original proposal. They are more reasonable and I feel we can live with these increases, continue to provide the passes and that is a good thing for our people.”