The HSR ranks dead last among large Ontario cities in ridership growth, and may have actually lost passengers again last year. Fixing the transit system was the focus of nine of the sixteen citizens who made delegations on the 2016 budget this month, and they used councillors’ own promises and even their complaints to the province to push for more buses as well as a storage and maintenance facility to accommodate them.
Provincially-gathered data show that from 2006 to 2014, ridership in Hamilton rose only five percent. Growth in each of St. Catharines, London, Mississauga and York region ranged from 21 to 31 percent, while Waterloo climbed 50 percent, Durham 55 percent, and Brampton over 100 percent (see table below).
The HSR hasn’t formally released its ridership numbers from last year, but an estimate of 22 million riders was revealed last week which would represent a drop of 200,000 from 2014. If that’s confirmed, it would be the fifth year in the last decade that use of the HSR has declined.
The ten-year strategy for HSR approved last year now appears to be in jeopardy despite steep fare hikes last September and again this coming fall that were supposed to fix system deficiencies. Transit staff now say they need $7 million just to finish buying the promised buses and they are also seeking a $5 million to start work on a lower city storage and maintenance facility.
Both requests were strongly supported by the citizens who spoke about transit to council because neither need is currently part of the 2016 budget, with decisions deferred until this coming week or later. In addition, another $100 million plus that’s required over the next 8 years was not included in the approved ten-year capital budget.
A member of the seniors’ advisory committee reminded councillors that substantial fare increases had been agreed to last year by the seniors in return for promises of improved HSR service that requires the bus purchases. She demanded the council stick to their half of the ‘deal’.
Several other speakers called for an end to the area rating system which charges residents of the former suburbs only about a third the transit tax rate of those living in the old Hamilton. And the head of the Social Planning and Research Council (SPRC) challenged the inconsistency of council on another taxation position.
Councillors have long argued that property taxes are regressive and used this to push senior levels of government to take over full funding of Ontario Works. SPRC executive director Don Jaffray agreed that low-income households are unfairly penalized by property taxes that don’t reflect their income but pointed out that also means they are unfairly burdened with paying for transit.
“Because of the regressive nature of property taxes, it is important that any property tax increases improve services and programs in the city that directly benefit the lowest income households,” contended Jaffray. “If instead, property taxes increase the focus on services or infrastructure that primarily benefit higher income households then wealth is unfairly transferred from the lowest income households.”
He also noted that transit fares are also regressive because in Hamilton “transit users are more likely to be living on lower than average incomes”. He provided a graph showing households earning less than $20,000 a year pay more than four times as much of their incomes on transportation as those earning over $50,000.
Jaffray also condemned the area rating system because it “means that higher income households in Hamilton’s suburbs contribute an even smaller amount to transit as they do to other municipal services.” The tax impact on most lower-income households is also increased by council’s policy of imposing a much higher tax rate on older apartment buildings.
Multi-residential buildings constructed before amalgamation pay 2.74 times the tax rate placed on single-family homes in Hamilton. That means that tenants effectively pay about one-fifth of their rent in property taxes even though most have lower incomes than home owners.
Change in Transit Ridership 2006-2014
|
Municipality |
Increase in riders |
Percent increase |
|
Hamilton |
1,068,214 |
5.0% |
|
St Catharines |
1,031,919 |
21.7% |
|
Mississauga |
7,585,829 |
26.1% |
|
London |
5,080,542 |
27.2% |
|
York Region |
5,337,239 |
31.2% |
|
Waterloo Region |
6,852,097 |
49.9% |
|
Durham Region |
3,849,276 |
55.4% |
|
Brampton |
10,258,263 |
101.2% |