Commuter books to be sold only to individuals starting Jan. 6
By Charles M. Kelly
Catalina Express is changing its commuter program starting on Jan. 6, 2025.
“Commuter books will be sold on an individual basis only and will no longer allow multiple people to use a commuter book,” wrote Amanda Bombard of Catalina Express in a Dec. 20 email.
“Commuter books sold before January 6, 2025 will be honored under the previous program policies until passes have been used and/or expire,” she wrote.
“In order to best accommodate the Island residents, Catalina Express will be offering a new package of 6 one-way tickets in addition to the package of 10 one-way tickets. This change to the commuter subsidy program is not an increase in commuter ticket prices, the per ticket price will remain the same. This is an additional option offering a 6 one-way ticket book alongside the existing 10 one-way ticket book for City of Avalon subsidy card holders,” she wrote.
“Regular (non-City subsidized) commuters will be able to purchase only the 10 one-way tickets package. All packages are valid for one year from purchase date and are not refundable or transferable,” she wrote.
“Commuter accounts will allow the main account holder to add sub-members under one account at the ticket window, however each sub-member must have their own individual commuter book. When making a reservation, commuter books sold after January 6, 2025 will be designated to a specific person in the account,” Amanda Bombard wrote.
Erik Bombard of Catalina Express provided an update on the commuter program to the Dec. 17 City Council meeting. Unfortunately, there were technical problems and only part of his presentation was video-recorded for the public.
Mayor Anni Marshall said it was impossible to get the four pack.
“When I talk to the seniors, they rarely go over and with them [the four packs] expiring, they lose their money because they can’t get refunded,” Marshall said. She asked if there was any flexibility.
“The four pack was only used by about four or five individuals,” Erik Bombard said.
According to Bombard, if you are not traveling three times a year it is hard to fit that into a program.
“Most commuter programs in the transportation industry aren’t very lenient when it comes to how many trips you need to do,” he said.
“When it comes to our commuter program, three round trips in a year that’s pretty lenient for a commuter program,” he said.
Councilmember Lisa Lavelle asked if there was a way to have a two pack.
She asked for the reasoning for not having a two pack as opposed to a six or 10 pack.
“My concern is that if you’re looking at a family of four or five they’re having to pay almost double at one time what they were paying previously,” Lavelle said. “For some families that might be OK, they may be able to do that, and over the span of a year they would have spent that money anyway, but just the onetime payout is what I’m worried about especially for larger families,” Lavelle said.
She said that not everyone has the money they need during this time of the year, referring to Christmas and after January.
“I make a relatively good salary and I still have trouble ’cause I can’t make a boat reservation until I have the money to buy a new commuter book each time and I go through them relatively quickly right now because of my city and business work dealings,” Lavelle said.
She said she couldn’t imagine having a family of four or five or more.
“I don’t want to make it more complicated for anybody to have to do that but I’m wondering if there’s a way to have offsets for people that cannot afford to do that when they need to,” Lavelle said.
City Manager David Maistros said some of the roadblocks that city staff ran into working with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority was the definition of commuter.
He said five round trips was Metro’s floor to qualify as a commuter for funding.
Lavelle asked if it would be better to go into a membership model. She asked if there was a way to make a balance due rather than having people to pay up front.
Maistros said there was no question there was an impact.
Maistros said as this ramps up, there will be an impact on the commuter program.
Erik Bombard said the new program starts Jan. 6. According to Bombard, Catalina Express wanted to make sure that they were able to allow people who already have commuter books would be able share them until the books are used up.
Councilmember Yesenia De La Rosa asked if Avalon was allowed to do an impact assessment.
Maistros said, “We could try to do that, sure.”
Bombard said if the city wanted to come up with something for an individual who travels once, Catalina Express was always open to a discussion about that.
Bombard said if anyone has questions, they should either go to the ticket window or call passenger services at Catalina Express.
