TransLink commissioner Martin Crilly will announce on Wednesday whether a 12.5 per cent fare hike is justified to fund transit projects and service deliveries.

Crilly and a team of analysts had been hired to review TransLink's operations to ensure that the transit authority is running as efficiently as possible before it allows the increase in fare prices next year.

Director of Simon Fraser University's City Program Gordon Price predicts that Crilly may find some other areas where TransLink can be more cost efficient. However, Price said he will be surprised if the fare hike is not approved. Without increasing prices, TransLink will not be able increase the frequency of bus services, Price said.

"Things like cracking down on fare evasion or cut salaries, that will give you some bucks but it's not the kind of numbers you really need to serve the existing system or to expand it," he said.

Under the proposed fare increase, a single one-zone ticket will rise from $2.50 to $2.75; two-zone and three-zone fares will increase by 50 cents to $4.25 and $5.50- respectively.

Tricia Warrick, whose bus was late on Tuesday morning, said she was not impressed with the proposal.

"It's expensive enough already," she said. "[The bus] is running half an hour behind, and service is not good."

June Welch, however, said she is willing to pay more for transit if she has to. She usually buys two- and three-zone tickets.

"It would be more difficult to afford and I hope they don't put it up," she said. "But I think as opposed to other methods of transportation…I always take this when I'm not driving and you do get where you're going."

Last month, Premier Christy Clark ordered an audit of TransLink to address a $30-million shortfall in funding, but a start date has yet to be announced. Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom stated today in a letter to the Mayor's Council that he is "unwilling to consider any new funding tool for TransLink that involves the provincial carbon tax." He also disapproves of additional fuel taxes.

With a file from CTV British Columbia's Maria Weisgarber