It’s nearly the end of the line for free rides on the CTrain in Calgary’s downtown core after a city committee endorsed scrapping the longstanding service.
City administration recommended ending the free fare zone after Calgary Transit conducted a review of the zone late last year.
Officials said that work was sped up after city councillors supported an in-depth review of the zone earlier this year.
The city’s Infrastructure and Planning Committee voted 7 to 4 in favour of the recommendations, with councillors Nathaniel Schmidt, Myke Atkinson, Raj Dhaliwal and Andrew Yule opposed.
The move will now go to city council for a final decision.
Calgary’s downtown free fare zone runs along roughly 2.5 km across 7 Avenue South between Downtown West/Kerby station and City Hall/Bow Valley College station and allows riders on the Red and Blue line CTrains to hop on and off without paying a fare.
A map of Calgary Transit’s downtown free fare zone.
Global News
The free fare zone is described by city officials as a “legacy service” first established as a pilot project in 1981 to encourage ridership on the CTrain when it first opened.
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City officials argued removing the zone would reduce “disorderly behaviour” on trains and platforms in the downtown core, and contribute to improved perceptions of safety over time.
Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming told committee safety is the primary concern for transit riders, especially in the downtown core.
“Ridership gains from expanded transit service, fare pricing or messaging are limited unless safety issues downtown are addressed first,” she said. “Safety is not a secondary consideration, or a nice-to-have feature of public transit. It is a requirement.”
According to a report into the matter, the elimination of the zone would give transit peace officers the lawful authority to remove disruptive riders, address loitering and intervene before issues escalate.
“Right now in the free fare zone, anyone can get onto the system. There’s nothing you can do to prevent them from being there,” Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot told reporters. “Once they’re there, how do you get them off?”
The move endorsed by committee Thursday would introduce a regular fare of $4 for the downtown segment, which is expected to generate an additional $5 million per year.
That figure is based on 25 per cent of current downtown ridership continuing to use the CTrain, Fleming said.
Dozens of Calgarians showed up to speak to the issue at city hall Thursday, with nearly every speaker voicing support for keeping the free fare zone.
Andrew Doudican, with the Calgary Downtown Association, said scrapping the free fare zone doesn’t address root causes of social disorder, and would displace the issue further into the downtown core.
“Displacing those people… and moving them off, which will put them into businesses and public areas is not addressing the greater downtown safety issue,” he told committee. “If people feel safer on the train, do they feel safe when they get off?”
Given the city’s focus on downtown revitalization over the last number of years, Atkinson said eliminating the free fare zone could impact movement through the core.
“I don’t believe that there is any justification for eliminating the free fare zone,” he told reporters. “I think it actually will put at risk a very important part of our downtown core.”
Free fare zones have been eliminated in other cities like Portland, Seattle, Kansas City, and Grand Rapids, a jurisdictional scan from Calgary Transit found.
David Cooper, principal at Leading Mobility, said Calgary’s debate isn’t surprising given the trend and pressures on transit systems across North America.
“One of the things that’s really challenging when we look at public transit is ultimately it’s not free,” he said.
“There’s a lot of demands on our transit system, in terms of service expansion, in terms of connecting our downtown, in terms of connecting the rest of the city, and that costs money.”
If city council approves the move to eliminate the free fare zone, the changes would take effect Aug. 1.
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