CINCINNATI -- The Southwest Ohio Regional Transit Authority board of trustees approved a new Access fare increase option Friday morning.
The new option will be forwarded to City Council for their consideration next week.
If approved, the new option will allow Metro to reduce its services only 12 percent instead of the originally proposed 20 percent.
The new Access fare proposal will change the Zone 1(City of Cincinnati) fare from $1.50 to $3.50 and Zone 2(Hamilton County) from $2.00 to $4.50.
To lesson the fare hike impact on customers, the increase would be phased in on December 27, 2009 and January 6, 2010.
"Our goal is to preserve as much service as possible for our customers," Metro CEO Marilyn Shazor said. "We appeal to City Council to approve the Access fare increase next week so that we can implement the smaller service reduction, saving 1 million rides for our customers and 55 full-time bus operator and mechanic jobs."
City Council had approved a fare increase proposal on Nov. 18 for Metro, but did not act on the proposal for Access.
The Metro fare increase alone did not balance Metro's budget; the Access fare increase was integral to the package. The entire fare increase package had to be approved to reduce the service cut from 20 percent to 12 percent.
