Countywide : Discount Bus Fare to End; Cost of Passes to Rise

Orange County Transit District directors on Monday approved the first major hike in bus fares since 1981 with a plan to eliminate discounts for travel during non-peak hours and to raise the price of monthly passes.

The current 75-cent peak hour fare remains intact, but the increase scheduled to take effect July 1 will raise the off-peak hour fare from 60 cents to 75 cents.

Until now, peak-hour rates have been in effect from 6 to 9 a.m. and from 3 to 6 p.m.

Basic fares for senior citizens and the handicapped will remain unchanged, but monthly passes for those riders will have increases ranging from $1.50 to $2.50 each.

OCTD directors approved the fare increases in the face of a projected $603,614 deficit in fare-box revenues for the 1985-86 fiscal year. The hikes will produce an estimated $687,900 in new revenues, or an overall 5.4% increase, even with a projected 3.9% decrease in ridership as a result of the higher fares.

Herb Eggett, chairman of the Orange County Senior Citizens Advisory Council’s transportation committee, said his group is not opposed to the present fare increases because most seniors ride the bus free of charge during off-peak hours due to subsidies authorized by the county Board of Supervisors.