With bus ridership and diesel fuel prices at record levels, King County Executive Ron Sims is proposing a 25-cent fare increase.

Sims said he decided on the increase rather than cut service to pay for fuel costs that have skyrocketed over 60 percent this year alone.

"This worldwide fuel crisis comes at a time of historic ridership growth for Metro Transit - and is the reason why residents are turning to transit in record numbers as their own budgets are squeezed," Sims said. "But, the same rising fuel costs contributing to Metro's popularity are making it more expensive to deliver service and maintain aggressive transit-growth plans."

He said the increase would permit the bus system to continue to expand to meet "extraordinary demand" for more transit and not retrench.

Metro had budgeted $2.60 per gallon for diesel this year but now anticipates paying an average of $3.86 per gallon this year.

That will create a deficit of more than $14 million in 2008, despite a fare increase earlier this year to cushion the impact of rising operational costs.

Metro officials say the bus service buys about 12 million gallons of diesel fuel each year for its fleet of more than 1,300 buses. Additional diesel fuel is used to operate the agency's Access paratransit program.

"The sudden rise in the price of fuel has both increased transit demand and created the prospect of service cuts," said King County Council member Dow Constantine, chair of the council's Transportation Committee. "This is clearly no time to cut transit service. We look forward to hearing from the commuting public as we review the Executive's proposal."

If approved by the county council, one-zone peak transit fares would increase 25 cents beginning Oct. 1 to $2 for adults from the current $1.75 fare. One zone non-peak would increase to $1.75 from the current $1.50. Senior fares will remain at 50 cents and youth fares will stay at 75 cents. Increases are also proposed for Access fares, vanpools and FlexPasses.

In addition to fare increases, Metro is proposing additional steps to offset rising fuel costs. It's asking the King County Council to reconsider its prohibition of wrapped advertising on Metro buses and is taking steps to develop a fuel-hedging program aimed at reducing fuel price volatility.

These proposed short-term actions are aimed at preserving existing service and delivering new service already on the way as part of Metro's Transit Now program. The agency has made a commitment to expand its overall system by up to 20 percent by 2016 to help meet demand and projected population growth. In the past three years alone, ridership has grown by more than 18 percent.

"This September, residents from Seattle to the Snoqualmie Valley will see additional service improvements thanks to Transit Now," Sims said. "This fare proposal will help us offset the rising cost of fuel so we can keep our promise of providing more transit to more places and keep our economy moving."

Sims says he wants the Metropolitan King County Council for timely review of his transit proposals so they can take effect on Oct. 1.

For more information about Metro's fare proposal, go to www.metrokc.gov/kcdot/metrofares. To contact Council member Constantine, call 296-1008