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Yesterday, Bay Area Rapid Transit’s (BART) board adopted a fiscal-year 2013 budget that includes funds for new rail cars, expanded rail service on the Daly City-to-Richmond Line, and escalator/elevator maintenance and repairs, as well as a 1.4 percent fare increase.

The fare hike, which will take effect July 1, is expected to generate $4.8 million to contribute to the agency’s “overall financial health,” BART officials said in a prepared statement. The increase will be the last in the current program to raise fares on regular basis according to the rate of inflation minus one-half percent, they said.

Many riders, including those who pay the minimum fare of $1.75, will not pay higher fares. The maximum increase riders will pay is an additional 15 cents.

In FY2013, BART officials will use $45 million in operating funds toward the $3.2 billion new rail-car project, an additional $2.4 million to pay for new seats and new floors in existing cars, and about $600,000 to pay for an extra hour of train service on the Daly City-to-Richmond Line, BART officials said.

The budget also includes $1 million in material costs for the escalator/elevator division, which has hired outside contractors in recent weeks to address a high number of escalator outages. The FY2012 budget added eight new positions to BART’s existing 41-staff team in the division.