C-TRAN fares will be increasing May 1. One time C-Zone cash fares will jump a nickel to $1.30. Single use All-Zone cash fares will increase by a dime, landing at $2.35. Depending on zone and discount rates, monthly passes will rise in cost $1 to $4. Express fares to Portland will not be affected by the fare change.

   

    According to the automated C-TRAN helpline, "The additional revenue will help pay for rising fuel costs and other expenses."

   

    However, C-TRAN's Manager of Public Affairs Jim Quintana said the increase purely addresses inflation, and fuel costs were not a factor in the decision.

   

    The increase was planned in 2005, when Vancouver residents voted down a measure that would have funded C-TRAN with an increased sales tax of three cents per $10 spent. After the measure failed, C-TRAN recognized that an immediate increase in fare or an elimination of routes would be necessary.

   

    Debbie Wright, a member of the C-TRAN Citizen's Advisory Committee said doubling all fares was on the table, but only temporarily. Wright said, "We heard loud and clear from the (lower income) groups that they could not afford to double their fares, but Portland commuters were willing to pay premium."

   

    C-TRAN’s public affairs office said this led to C-TRAN enacting the largest fare increase in its history. In 2005, the service doubled monthly Express bus passes to $105 and charged an extra 25 cents for single use fare. Even with the increase, funding still remained low until June of that year, when a new measure passed with a 68 percent majority, which increased sales tax 0.20 percent, to supplement C-TRAN's budget.

   

    "We were in a downturn -- we were concerned with what was gonna happen, then we got the yes vote,” said Quintana. “The ballot measure gave us that money back to return service to what it was before, and we had a little money left over, not a lot, but a little to play around with."

   

    Quintana said the additional money went to new buses and the installation of the 99th Street Transit Center.

   

    With service now returned to its previous efficiency, Quintana said that it's time to address the issue that the majority of the monetary struggle came from. Before 2000, Washington state would match C-TRAN's sales tax funding to help fund bus routes.

   

    Quintana said, "If we do annual increases at about a nickel a year, we'll never have to do these giant ones again," Quintana said. "There's another increase identical to May's coming in 2009."

   

    The C-TRAN Citizen's Advisory Committee said nothing is final in the future of C-TRAN's funding.

   

    "We're working on a 20-year plan," Tim Leavitt, member of C-TRAN's Board of Directors said. "There are five different plans we're considering."

   

    Despite the unfinished plans, Quintana said he thinks C-TRAN is on the right track. Quintana said that the 99th Street Transit Center has been a success and that public objection to the fare increase has been minimal.

   

    According to C-TRAN documents, since March of 2007, there has been a 12.8 percent increase of total ridership and pay-as-you-board fare profit is above the national average.