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The Federal Transit Administration's Office of Civil Rights works proactively and on a collaborative basis with transit providers to ensure that the impacts of service and fare changes are distributed equitably to minority and low-income populations and are not discriminatory. We also seek to ensure that minority, low-income, and limited English proficient communities have an equal opportunity to participate in the public involvement process that often preceeds a decision to change service and fares.
FTA's Circular 4702.1A, "Title VI and Title VI-Dependent Guidelines" provides guidance to transit agencies serving large urbanized areas. These agencies "shall evaluate significant system-wide service and fare changes and proposed improvements at the planning and programming stages to determine whether these changes have a discriminatory impact. For service changes, this requirement applies to 'major service changes' only. The recipient should have established guidelines or thresholds for what it constitutes a 'major' service change to be. Often this is defined as a numerical standard, such as a change that affects 25% of service hours of a route. (Circular 4702.1A, Chapter V part 4).
We encourage transit providers who are planning fare increases or service reductions to conduct a self-assessment using the methodology described in the attached self assessment.
Questions about equity in service and fare changes can be directed to:
FTA Office of Civil Rights
East Building – 5th Floor, TCR
1200 New Jersey Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20590
(202) 366-4018
Service and Fare Change Equity Self-Assessment
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