Free transit actually is a thing, and you might be surprised where | CBC News

You May Be Interested In:Alberta minister calling on federal government to end postal strike | Globalnews.ca


While public transit in many Canadian cities struggles with fares going up and ridership going down, in one community the passenger count has more than doubled in the past two years.

Transit ridership in the town of Orangeville, Ont., will, by the end of the year, have increased by 150 to 160 per cent, according to Mayor Lisa Post.  

“It’s really impacting the entire community positively,” she said. 

The reason for that big spike? Orangeville’s buses became free in 2023 as part of a test program which the town just pledged to continue until 2027. 

The experiment is sparking discussion about whether some form of free transit is possible in bigger cities and how it might work.   

WATCH | Free transit in Orangeville:

This town made transit free for everyone

Ridership has doubled since Orangeville, Ont., started a fare-free pilot project, but experts caution the concept would be an uphill climb in bigger communities that need the money transit brings in.

The community of 30,000 people, some 60 kilometres northwest of Toronto, may not be known for trendsetting, but has joined a list of communities in Canada and the U.S. where riding buses and streetcars is free.

And Post says more than two dozen officials from elsewhere in Canada have asked her about her city’s test — “municipalities of all sizes, from small rural to small urban like we are, right to big cities.” 

How it adds up

Free transit is seen by advocates as a social equity policy that helps people with lower incomes.

And, when priced right, reliable transit can also reduce traffic and pollution.

Orangeville isn’t the first city in Canada to offer free transit for everyone, but it is the largest. Canmore, Alta., (pop. 17,036) went fare-free in 2022, after a few years testing it out in the summer.

Orangeville is twice the size of Canmore and, before going fare-free, about 100,000 riders a year used the three routes of its bus system. 

A woman with short red hair and glasses wearing a green jacket with silver buttons and a white shirt stands in front of the Ontario and Canadian flags.
Orangeville Mayor Lisa Post says more than two dozen officials from elsewhere in Canada have asked her about her community’s free transit program and how it works. (Craig Chivers/CBC)

In 2023, the year free transit began, it had 225,000 riders and it’s on track for more than 260,000 this year.

The budget for Orangeville transit is almost $1.2 million a year and in 2019, the last year for which data is available, fare revenue accounted for about $150,000.

A woman with shoulder length dark hair, red lipstick and a dark jacket sits in a bus set by the window smiling at the camera.
Orangeville resident Vivian Petho says free transit makes it easier for her to get to appointments and her son’s school. (Craig Chivers/CBC )

Since collecting fares cost up to $80,000 a year, Orangeville decided it made sense to cover that small portion of the transit budget another way.

“We always are trying to find ways to improve our road networks for vehicles,” said Post. “We invest in car culture, we need to invest in transit culture.”

What riders say 

Post says researching free transit included speaking with local food bank users who said not having to pay fares made “the difference of being able to get bread and milk.” 

In addition to residents with low incomes, she says the program helps seniors get to medical appointments and more social outings, and young people get to school and part-time jobs. 

A man with short brown hair and glasseswearing a grey suit jacket stands in front of TTC station smiling.
Yuval Grinspun, CEO of Left Turn Right Turn, a transit consultancy in Toronto, says free transit can work in small- and medium-sized communities. (Craig Chivers/CBC )

Riding the city’s green route, Vivian Petho says she’s grateful she can get to appointments and to her son’s school and activities for free. “I can’t do that unless I have transit,” she said. “We go all over on this bus.”

On the same bus, Christopher Gierusz was visiting Orangeville from nearby Brampton.

“I find this amazing,” he told CBC News. “The city I’m from is expensive to travel on the bus.” 

Several of the U.S. cities with fare-free transit are quite a bit larger than Orangeville, including:

  • Albuquerque, N.M. (pop 560,274).
  • Alexandria, Va., (pop 155,230).
  • Richmond, Va., (pop 229,247).
  • Kansas City, Mo., (pop. 510,704).    

In Canada, advocates and local politicians have pushed for free transit in cities like OttawaWinnipeg and Victoria.

In the recent B.C. election, the Green Party promised free transit province wide if elected, and in the upcoming Nova Scotia election, the Liberals say they’ll make transit free if they win.

So could free transit work in bigger cities here?

People standing under a bus shelter get on white bus with yellow and blue stripes undeunder the front window.
Boston made three heavily used bus routes free in areas where over half of the riders are classified as low-income. (City of Boston)

Yuval Grinspun, CEO of Left Turn Right Turn, a transit consultancy in Toronto, says free transit can work in small- and medium-sized communities, but for larger ones, “it’s going to be an uphill climb.” 

He says the problem is that fares count for so much of large transit system budgets in Canada, that they can’t be dropped without massive funding increases.”

The ‘free for some’ option

Grinspun says he believes a more equitable model is providing targeted fares to the people who “have the hardest time finding $3 or what-not a day to pay for transit.” 

David-Alexandre Brassard, the chief economist of the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, agrees with the idea of reducing or eliminating fairs for some groups.

“We know financially, it’s a bit harder for younger people than it has been in the past, so could alleviating transit cost be part of the solution?” he asked. “There’s some thinking to do around the pricing model, for sure.”

Some Canadian cities currently let seniors ride free or offer free youth passes. 

Other large Canadian cities have a low-income transit pass option, but the passes aren’t free and applicants have to prove they qualify. 

There’s another approach to free transit in Boston, a city of 654,000 people with another 3.7 million living in the surrounding areas. It’s made three heavily used bus routes free in areas where over half of riders are deemed low-income. 

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu even does social media videos with riders who count on those routes. 

New York City experimented with free bus routes for a year, though it also struggles with fare evasion and enforcement.

There are arguments against free transit, in some cases from transit advocates who argue reliability and safety are more important to riders.

But in Orangeville, the free transit program is expanding next year to include a nearby rural area. 

Post says the county government sees the program as such a success it’s adding extra funding for an additional route. 



share Paylaş facebook pinterest whatsapp x print

Similar Content

Is 'La La Land' based on Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield's relationship? Latter reacts to crazy fan theory
Is ‘La La Land’ based on Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield’s relationship? Latter reacts to crazy fan theory
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE hands-on: How different is it from the Galaxy S24 Ultra I own?
Samsung Galaxy S24 FE hands-on: How different is it from the Galaxy S24 Ultra I own?
Saskatoon's Berkly Catton is among the 32 players invited to Team Canada's world junior selection camp
Catton, Heidt, Molendyk, Price, Yager invited to world jr. camp
Postal workers could go on strike Friday morning if no deal is reached between the Crown corporation and the union. A Canada Post mail carrier delivers flyers on their route in Montreal on Wednesday, Nov.13, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
Canada Post workers are on strike. Here’s what you need to know about your mail
Differently abled artist defies  odds to bring Lord Ayyappa’s tale to life at Sabarimala
Differently abled artist defies odds to bring Lord Ayyappa’s tale to life at Sabarimala
Two children drown in Chikkamagaluru estate
Two children drown in Chikkamagaluru estate
Pulse of the World | © 2024 | News