Starting Sept. 14, the fare to ride the public bus system in Camarillo will rise from 50 cents to $1 for all riders except students, senior citizens and the disabled.
The Camarillo City Council voted Wednesday to increase the price after instituting a new half-fare policy required by the Federal Transit Authority.
The city needed to establish the half-fare price for seniors and the disabled as a requirement for receiving a grant from the federal agency to buy two new buses.
Traffic Engineer Tom Fox recommended offering the lower price to students as well.
Fox told the council that the option to drop the current 50-cent fare to 25 cents for the three groups of people would have cut annual revenues from $9,000 to about $5,000.
The city already pays $6 every time a person rides the bus, and cutting the revenue would mean more money paid from the general fund to subsidize the bus system, he said.
The two-bus system cost the city $237,000 last year, $9,000 of which came from fares and $16,000 from Leisure Village.
The senior citizen discount applies to people over 55, Fox said.
He added that public bus fares in most Ventura County cities are between 75 cents and $1.
