Sound Transit ends paper transfers, Metro raise fares

Budget shortfalls and an effort to promote the new ORCA regional transit card are bringing several changes to Issaquah's public transit system at the start of 2010.

Budget shortfalls and an effort to promote the new ORCA regional transit card are bringing several changes to Issaquah’s public transit system at the start of 2010.

King County Metro bus riders will notice is a 25-cent increase in the standard fare for adult and senior/disabled fares, beginning Jan. 1.

Youth fares will remain unchanged. The new price for a one-way, two-zone trip to Seattle during peak hours (6-9 am and 3-6 pm) is $2.75, while the off-peak and weekend fare is only $2.00. Issaquah’s other bus service to Seattle, Sound Transit, remains at $2.50 for a one-way, two-zone fare for all dates and times.

Metro currently maintains 11 different bus routes through Issaquah city limits, carrying several thousand passengers daily.

Regional bus service on Sound Transit has also stopped accepting paper transfers from King County Metro and other transit agencies as a consequence of the new ORCA (an acronym for “One Regional Card for All) smart card, which electronically tracks the two-hour transfer and deducts it from a pre-paid account.

The rechargeable fare card was introduced earlier last year and is enabled to electronically pass along the transfer fare for two hours, linking all seven Puget Sound transportation networks of buses, trains and ferries. The electronically enabled transit pass (an acronym for “One Regional Card for All) is used by “tapping” the card on a card reader as passengers board. The fare would then be automatically deducted from a virtual “e-purse” account.

“If you want credit for the first part of your ride you need to use an ORCA card,” said Sound Transit spokesperson Linda Robson.

Robson estimated that about half of all daily trips on Sound Transit are paid for in cash, other half are paid by passes, meaning the change could have a potentially large impact on local transit passengers.

Previously, riders from Metro or another transit agency could use paper transfers as either partial or full credit for a fare on Sound Transit. Paper transfers from Metro bus to another Metro bus are still accepted.

The fare-hike and transfer restrictions come as transit agencies are coming to grips with declining revenues and new technologies and passenger loads are starting to decline.

“It’s our experience that ridership is flat or has dipped slightly,” said Robson.

All three Sound Transit routes that serve Issaquah — the 554, 555 and 556 — have seen slight declines from 2008 when high gas prices forced commuters to consider alternatives. By far the busiest route traveling to and from Issaquah, Route 554 carried over 2,200 passengers on an average weekday – adding up to a total of 175,000 passengers over a three-month period last summer.

King County Metro spokesperson Linda Thielke attributed the declines in-part to a weakened economy and a loss of jobs. Metro’s two busiest Issaquah routes, the 214 and 218 rush-hour buses to Seattle, also saw declines of about 10 to 15 percent of their ridership over the past year.

“Some of the drop in the 218 ridership could be attributed to more service from the Issaquah Highlands via Sound Transit,” she said.

No service cuts are currently planned in Issaquah for either agency and the next service revision is scheduled for May 2010. Recent plans to expand Metro Route 200 service into Issaquah Highlands and Talus and expanding either Route 200 or 927 to Squak Mountain remain on hold.

The seven ORCA partners are Community Transit, Everett Transit, King County Metro Transit, Kitsap Transit, Pierce Transit, Sound Transit and Washington State Ferries. Officials say the agencies serve more than half of Washington’s population and carry about 500,000 riders each weekday.