Wave goodbye to TriMet's two-hour ticket. In a few months, it will become a 2.5-hour fare.

After nearly four years of dueling with a Portland bus riders' union over the fairness of bus and train fares, the TriMet board of directors on Wednesday voted to extend the transfer time on single-ride tickets.

Starting March 1, the period during which riders are allowed to use a so-called "cash fare" -- $2.50 for adults, $1 for honored citizens and $1.25 for youth – to transfer between vehicles or to make errand-running round trips will increase from two hours to 2.5 hours.

TriMet policy requires that riders need only board the last vehicle of their trip before a ticket expires. They do not need to complete their trip before the "transfer time" expires.

The board's 4-2 vote arrived after a long, high-profile fight with OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon, which filed a civil-rights complaint against Oregon's largest transit agency in December 2013.

Board member Travis Stovall, who supported the proposal, said he believes one key to prosperity is transportation. For many people in the Portland metro area, that means reliable public transportation, he said.

The agency must face the reality that the region's demographics have seen dramatic shifts, with more low-income and transit-dependent riders moving into neighborhoods on the fringes of frequent and regular bus service.

"We haven't been able to keep up with those services because (the population shift) caught many of us by surprise," Stovall said. "We are here for all of our riders."

However, board members T. Allen Bethel and Craig Prosser voted against the proposal, saying they were worried about it dragging down the agency's budget if tough economic times hit again. The agency has said that the cost to implement the proposal would be about $1.2 million a year.

Bethel also expressed frustration at what he called OPAL's "bullying, intimidation and very disrespectful" tactics to get its way on fare transfers. In the past, Bethel has also said that a single-ride fare should be used as a one-way ticket, not for a round trip.

OPAL originally pushed for the transfer time to be boosted a full hour to three hours.

In its federal complaint, the local bus rider advocacy group contended that TriMet unlawfully reduced fare transfer times to make more money off of weekend riders when it installed new bus ticket printers last year.

OPAL, which organized the Bus Riders Unite union, argued that the 2-hour fares spit out by the printers -- not a minute more, every day, every hour -- amount to a de facto weekend price hike that unfairly hurt low-income neighborhoods in East Portland and the suburbs.

Previously, when drivers punched and tore flimsy transfer slips, weekend riders would regularly get transfers of three hours or more on a $2.50 ticket, OPAL said.

After the printers went into operation, according to OPAL, many transit-dependent riders had to buy a $5 day pass for round trips to go to the grocery store, doctor's appointments or run errands on weekends.

What's more, OPAL has said it was hardly fair when TriMet's route cuts during the Great Recession caused longer waiting times between buses. In recent months, however, TriMet has restored much of the frequent bus service that was eliminated when it was running on red ink during the economic downturn.

In July, the Federal Transit Administration dismissed OPAL's complaint. However, the FTA also rejected TriMet's long-running claim that tinkering with its transfer policy wasn't the same thing as a fare change requiring a thorough "transit equity analysis."

TriMet has since conducted a new analysis on possible impacts of changing fare transfer times on minority and low-income riders.

About 25 percent of TriMet's daily riders pay with cash at the fare box or use a pre-purchased ticket for single rides.

According to a report on the findings, low-income riders are slightly more likely to use transfers. On week days, for example, 29 percent of the trips made by low-income riders – defined as at or below 150 percent of the federal poverty level – at least one transfer, a rider survey showed. Meanwhile, 22 percent of trips made by higher-income riders required a transfer.

Three percent of trips made by both income groups required two or more transfers, the analysis showed.

OPAL has been agitating for an increase in the fare transfer time since late 2010, saying it's the least the agency can do to help low-income and transit-dependent riders hit hard by service cuts and fare increases.

The group maintains the increased transfers will boost overall ridership and farebox revenue.

But Johnell Bell, TriMet's director of diversity and transit equity, said the agency's analysis shows that OPAL's statement is only half true.

"Reducing the cost of service, as happens when more customers can make a round-trip on a single fare, generally does increase ridership," Bell said.

Despite the ridership boosts, however, the new transfer policy will actually cost more to implement than what it generates in new fare revenue, Bell said. "And the available data indicates that the benefit will be shared by both low income and higher income riders," he said.

"With the budget moving forward, we would have to find the offsets," TriMet General Manager Neil McFarlane told the board.

Jonathan Ostar, OPAL's executive director, conceded that it's dealings with the TriMet board had been rough, but made no apologies. Instead, he said the group is ready to move forward.

"We're looking ahead to working with the agency on developing an equitable e-fare policy and a loyal rider program for the thousands of riders that depend on TriMet everyday," Ostar said. "Long-term, this helps build the trust we need to go to Salem together and win more money for transit service."

-- Joseph Rose