As expected, the King County Council has approved a phased fare increase, which will begin in February of 2009. The details:

(Sorry for the bitmap; I couldn’t get the table format to work when cutting and pasting.)

$2.25? Yeesh. When I started my bus-riding career, peak fare was 55 cents–for a minute, before it got raised to 65. My parents, concerned by my tendency to leave jackets, umbrellas, and et cetera on bus seats, passed up a pass in favor of a book of bus tickets, which they doled out as needed. Come to think of it, Metro didn’t even have student fares way back then. Or maybe it’s just that it was so long ago, my memory has faded. I digress.

There’s not too much to do about this. KC Metro is underwater and has very limited options for getting out of its current jam. I don’t mind using some of my tremendous transportation savings to pay my fair (pun intended) share, but I hope Metro makes good on its promise to distribute more free-ride coupons to the county’s low-income residents. And I really hope there will be an easier way (or better yet–no requirement) to upgrade annual passes this time.