11-12-2024, 08:40 AM
Orangeville is seeing a dramatic transit use increase since switching to fare-free in 2023 and has committed to doing so until June 2027.
From the CBC article:
While I expect that the ratio of cost to collect fares for GRT to fares collected might be greater, I wonder what it is. How much does it cost GRT to maintain all of its fare infrastructure (including fare inspectors, collection terminals etc) in a given year.
From the CBC article:
Quote: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. Mont-Tremblant, Que., (pop. 11,000) started its free transit program in 2019.
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.
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.
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.
While I expect that the ratio of cost to collect fares for GRT to fares collected might be greater, I wonder what it is. How much does it cost GRT to maintain all of its fare infrastructure (including fare inspectors, collection terminals etc) in a given year.