MARTA intends to raise its fares by 50 cents over the next year, going to $2.50 for a regular ride, the transit agency said. An increase could take effect Oct. 2.

MARTA will hear public comment on the issue in meetings May 16 and May 17, and its board will make a decision on the fare proposal at its meeting in June, MARTA board Chairman Jim Durrett said.

Weekly and monthly pass prices would go up, too, with a monthly pass increasing from $68 to $95. Mobility fares for the elderly and disabled were already going up, and the proposal would not raise them any more than already planned, MARTA officials said.

"We absolutely know we’ve got to increase the share of our revenues borne by those that use the system," Durrett said. "What we haven’t decided is how we should raise our fares -- to what level over what period of time."

Some options include raising the fare by 50 cents all at once, or two 25-cent increases, Durrett said.

"We know we need to raise fares in 2012 [the fiscal year that begins July 1] and have at least a $2.50 fare in the 2013 budget," he said.

Pashana Lowery, an Austell resident who owns no car and takes MARTA a couple of times a week, was disappointed but said she understood. "Fifty cents adds up," she said. But given rising gas prices, "that's reasonable."

The move comes as MARTA and other transportation officials in the region position themselves for a transportation referendum in 2012. Voters in the 10-county Atlanta region will vote on a 1 percent sales tax for transportation projects, including mass transit.

Much of MARTA's funding also comes from a 1 percent sales tax levied in DeKalb and Fulton counties. That revenue fell along with the economy. But the economy's decline is starting to level off, and MARTA has restored some of the services it cut, including the bus shuttle from Five Points to Braves games.

MARTA last raised its regular fares in October 2009, from $1.75 to $2. It was the first fare increase since 2001, and MARTA CEO Beverly Scott said it was probably overdue.

Over the past two years MARTA has made sweeping cutbacks and fare increases in order to fill a budget gap of more than $100 million. It eliminated 2,700 of 11,500 bus stops and cut back train service as well.

The cutbacks did not put the agency in the black. Instead, they enabled MARTA to stay afloat while taking from reserves, which MARTA expected to exhaust in 2013.