Free city transit for all may be coming to Burlington.
During discussion around the cost of providing free transit for seniors and teens at council’s July 11 meeting, a motion was made to eliminate fares for Burlington Transit riders of all ages.
The thinking behind the request to staff to investigate free transit programs is simple: to increase ridership and enable all residents to participate fully in the community. Offering free transit for seniors is another opportunity to build transit ridership and to provide mobility options for seniors.
Starting Aug. 1 seniors 65 and older, can ride Burlington Transit for free. As part of the 2023 budget, councillors also approved free transit for youth (ages 13-19) which will also start in August. They can ride free after 6 p.m. and all day on weekends.
Seniors and youth can ride for free when they tap their Presto card when getting on Burlington Transit. Presto cards can be purchased with the Senior or Youth category applied at several locations in Burlington, including the Downtown Burlington Transit Bus Terminal, 430 John St. and at local Shoppers Drug Mart stores. Presto cards can be purchased for $6; during July and August, they’ll be available at no charge for seniors and youth.
In 2019, Burlington City Council approved the free transit for seniors pilot; it was made permanent in the 2022 budget. Senior ridership is currently at 91 per cent of pre-pandemic levels and was 22 per cent higher in the fall of 2022 compared to the fall of 2018.
Council has asked staff to report on the costs associated with free transit for all at the Sept. 12 community planning, regulation and mobility committee meeting. It will include a detailed analysis of budget impacts and a 10-year forecast for both operating budget and capital budget impacts.
It will also take into account fair integration impacts, gas tax impacts, regional tracks, transit operationalized impacts, benefits of free transit, including environmental, and economic risks for free transit.
The cost to retain a consultant to perform the review is $50,000, to be taken from the Provincial Gas Tax Reserve Fund.
“I believe this is a helpful analysis to perform," said Ward 5 Councillor Paul Sharman. “We've been talking about transit all the time I've been on council. Some of you'll remember, we never quite understood what we were trying to do. And I think that it's still unclear. So it's about time we got some analysis around this and decided on what it is we're trying to accomplish. But you know me, I want the data.”
Ward 3 councillor Rory Nisan was enthusiastic about the decision.
“We're asking a lot and we're actually asking for it to be done relatively quickly,” he said. “Let's get the analysis of all the benefits to the community of free public transit, be it environmental, economic and social. It's not as simple as the dollar and cents… I imagine that other municipalities would be very interested to see our analysis and will be watching us closely.”
It’s not often Nisan posts to Twitter from council, but he is known to be a huge supporter of public transit and sent out a tweet during yesterday's session.
BREAKING: Burlington City Council has unanimously approved a motion from @PaulSharman1 and me to get a report on cost estimates for free public transit in our city. And agreed to make transit free for seniors all day, and for high school students on evenings and weekends.
— Rory Nisan (@rorynisan) July 11, 2023
Catherine Baldelli, Director of Transit is thrilled about the decision to provide free transit for seniors.
“Since Burlington City Council introduced free travel for seniors mid-day on weekdays, we have seen an increase in seniors choosing transit as their way to get around Burlington," she said. "We are thrilled to extend this program to offer seniors free transit all day, every day on our buses. We are also delighted to provide youth, ages 13 to 19, the opportunity to take transit to many of the great locations that Burlington Transit goes. These initiatives are possible thanks to the strong support of our Mayor and Councillors.”
