Expanding bus use
Secondary school students in Burlington are getting free bus passes in that city’s latest effort to expand transit ridership.
Image source: John Bkila, 2019. MarianneMeedWard.ca.
Secondary school students in Burlington are getting free bus passes in that city’s latest effort to expand transit ridership. That follows free rides for seniors and for low-income residents introduced earlier this year as Burlington pushes to double its transit use over the next five years. Hamilton’s bus news is more mixed with a fare increase just put in place but also some improvements in service.
HSR’s expanded service that began this month mainly affects the popular B-Line express between Eastgate Mall and University Plaza. In the first upgrade since it was started in 1986, new stops have been added at Wellington, Melrose and the Delta, and hours of service extended until 10 pm. This route also now runs on Saturdays from 8 am to 10 pm.
The free passes for Burlington high school students echo a City of Kingston innovation that helped them jump their transit usage by 80 percent in less than five years. Despite its much smaller size, Kingston now has a solid lead over Hamilton in rides per capita. Burlington’s objective is to match that achievement by 2024.
In Kingston, high school fares were eliminated over four years starting with grade nine. In Burlington it looks like all secondary students will ride free by sometime next year. The Halton District School Board last week unanimously endorsed the change in an unfolding process that was initiated by Burlington Council last winter.
It still needs a final agreement with Burlington council which school trustees hope will be in place by the end of this year. Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward is a strong supporter and is promising to find the required funding in the 2020 budget for implementation. School trustees in Milton and Oakville are also exploring a similar program for their communities.
Transit costs for students are significant especially for families without a car. In Hamilton, elementary and secondary school students are each charged just over $90 a month for a bus pass while adult passes now sit at $110 per month.
Earlier this year, Burlington council approved free monthly bus passes for low income residents who qualify for the Halton subsidized pass program. Hamilton also has a low-income pass but it only cuts bus fare in half and you need to be both over 18 and employed to qualify for it.
The seniors program launched in Burlington in June allows free off-peak use of their bus system between 9 am and 2:30 pm on weekdays. This was accompanied by transit training sessions at malls and seniors’ centres.
Hamilton seniors still enjoy lower regular fares than their Burlington counterparts but without any free times. Burlington’s regular monthly seniors pass is quite a bit more costly than Hamilton’s at $61 monthly versus $32.50.
All these fare reduction initiatives in Burlington are intended to help meet ambitious ridership growth targets. As evidence of this commitment its council agreed in March to a nineteen percent increase in their transit budget.
The city’s plan for the next five years is to increase bus usage by nearly 20 percent a year instead of the less than two percent a year achieved over the last half decade. Bus routes are being revamped to a grid pattern, frequency is being increased and there’s a growing emphasis on getting passengers to and from Burlington’s GO transit stations.
“The singular, big dot we’re trying to get to in our city is moving towards increasing ridership on our Burlington Transit buses,” says Mayor Marianne Meed Ward. “Fares can act as a barrier to that. I want to eliminate as many barriers as possible to get more folks comfortable with using our local transit system and free transit does that.”
