Metrosim

Metrosim (Arabic: متروعصم mitrūʿṣim), officially the Capital Metropolitan Transport Authority (سلطة انتقال العاصمة الحضرية sulṭat intiqāl al-ʿāṣimah al-ḥaḍrīyah), is the statutory authority responsible for operating and maintaining the Capital metropolitan community's mass transit system. It is organised as a state enterprise under 100% ownership of the Capital Metropolitan Authority.

The Metrosim public transport network consists of the following components: an exclusively hybrid electric bus fleet, serving 255 town and 30 express routes; integrated 13-line rapid transit (Capital Metro) and 10-line commuter rail (Capital Express) service, both fully electrified; a pedestrian-only ferry linking Tiberias with Arab el-Nuqeib across the Sea of Galilee, running sunrise to sunset, and served by two vessels departing opposite ports every half hour; accessible transit for disabled persons and seniors, fully subsidised by the NHA, available on-demand; and student transport serving public K-to-12 schools, prescheduled home–school–home and chartered field trip/extracurricular routes, fully subsidised by Capital Metropolitan School District.

Fares and zones
Metrosim employs a unified fare scheme, with all fare options fully transferable within and between transit components while valid. The service region is divided into three fare zones—Nasser City (zone 1), inner suburbs (zone 2) and outer suburbs (zone 3); the boundary between zones 1 and 2 is defined as the limits of the capital district proper, physically the contiguous channel formed by the East Canal, Yarmouk and Jordan Rivers, while the boundary between zones 2 and 3 is defined as the Green Horseshoe. Transfer tickets, prepaid tickets, prepaid fare passes, and monthly passes may be purchased in one-, two- or three-zone-compatible tiers, for a cost of ð5.00, ð6.50 or ð7.50, respectively.

A surcharge is applied to prepaid and monthly passes when the holder crosses into a zone for which his/her pass is not valid–50% for one zone and 75% for two zones–meaning a customer who paid the one-zone fee of ð5.00 would ultimately pay ð7.50 for travelling in two zones, or ð8.75 for travelling in all three. Transfer and prepaid tickets are only valid in the zone(s) for which they were purchased and cannot be surcharged, requiring the purchase of a new ticket to travel in additional zone(s).

While traveling into or through one or two zones without the proper fare, or with an expired fare, is punishable by a ð200.00 fine, and entering the fare paid zone (all transit property for which a fare is required) without having paid whatsoever is punishable by a ð300.00 fine, Metrosim employs the honour system and thus does not require proof of payment to access transit—express buses (and town buses during peak hours) allow rear door boarding, and stations employ only electronic turnstiles as opposed to fare scanner-activated gates. Furthermore, while transit police may check fares and issue fines at their discretion, they only show up when called upon or dispatched to address security concerns, and thus it is relatively easy to avoid being fined for fare evasion.

According to 2020 statistics for the Capital Metro and Capital Express (compiled by subtracting fares purchased from total ridership in a given period), fare evasion is committed by under 0.1% of passengers, thus rendering tighter countermeasures, which would involve costly upgrades such as installation of fare gates and hiring more transit police and attendants, fiscally pointless.