Cash Transit Fares To See Steep Increase
Increasing costs and what is charged elsewhere in the province sited as reasons for the proposed increases
By Robert Thomas
Faced with increased costs and inflation what it costs to ride the bus, if you pay cash, is going up. And although it is only a buck the increases are percentage-wise in the double digits.
At Wednesday's special meeting about the 2023 Budget Council decided to raise the one-way cash transit fare by $1.
For regular transit that moves the one way cash fare from $2.25 to $3.25 or a 44.44 percent increase.
For paratransit - where people are often 100 percent reliant on public transportation - the one way cash fare will increase from $1.50 to $2.50 or a 66.67 percent increase.
Paying cash and using Moose Jaw Transit is going way up in price coming February 1, 2023 - MJ Independent file photo
For those who purchase transit passes there will be no increase to riders.
If approved the cash rate increases will kick in on February 1st. Paratransit would see a second bump in cash fares on January 1, 2024 to bring their cash fare to parity with regular transit.
“A rate increase has been suggested for transit….it has been quite some time since there has been a rate increase so we are looking to keep something consistent with other cities in our area,” city manager Jim Puffalt said in starting off the discussion.
The costs of running both divisions of public transportation - Transit and Paratransit - have taken steep increases and as such Administration recommended the fare increases.
“With the supply chain problems we have seen some pretty significant cost increases for this division. So of course rising fuel is a very visible one for us. Repair costs for parts have escalated quite sharply and the aforementioned equipment replacement costs so we have seen increases of 25 - 30 percent in our Transit division,” director of public works and utilities Darrin Stephanson told Council.
The cost recovery for the transit system is projected to be 27 percent in 2022 with the projected cost recovery to be 32 percent in 2023 with the increased ridership gained over 2022 factored in.
The options provided to Council - source City of Moose Jaw report
The annual subsidy to the transit system from local property taxpayers is approximately $1.5 million.
The most recent quarterly report shows the transit system bleeding red.
The proposed increases is projected to generate $80,000 in 2023 moving the cost recovery for the transit system to a projected 38 percent of expenditures in the department.
A second proposed increase for Paratransit cash fares in 2024 is projected to generate an additional $10,000.
The cash fares for paratransit is to be phased in over two years due to the large increase to bring it to parity with regular transit.
Stephanson pointed out that Moose Jaw’s rates were lower than surrounding centres and there should not be a difference on cash rate fares for either system.
“It really was an oversite in our 2021 budget when those rates came out of synch and it is certainly not industry best practice, And it is really not done anywhere else. Those rates for both services, Transit and Paratransit, should be in lock step with each other. And historically have been at the City of Moose Jaw,” he said.
Attempts To Revitalize The Transit System
Over the past five years attempts have been made to increase ridership and revenues for both transit divisions.
In 2016 the rates for Transit and Paratransit were $2.50 for both services - higher than what is presently charged in both parts of the Transit Division.
In an effort to drive ridership numbers in 2017 rates were halved.
At the time of the rate drop, then mayor Fraser Tolmie, said he would be utilizing transit as much as possible to encourage residents to use the heavily subsidized system.
The cost to ride the bus to the Downtown terminal were cut by 50 percent in 2017 but at the same time transfers were discontinued.
The effect was is in reality for many cash riders it increased the cost to take the bus.
When transfers were available riders would pay the cash fare to the Downtown ask for a transfer and use the transfer in the allotted time and use it for the return trip.
For most people going across the city the fare remained the same $2.50 as they had to pay $1.25 for each leg of their journey.
“On the impact of lower fares we found absolutely no correlation to lower rates and increased ridership. In fact ridership had decreased over that time period,” Stephanson said.
The present rates were set in 2020 after a review of the ridership drive initiative.
In last year’s budget discussion it was decided to discontinue Saturday transit service due to poor ridership.
Moose Jaw Cash Rates Lowest In Saskatchewan
“You will notice in that table that unfortunately the City of Moose Jaw is the lowest as far as the cash fare we charge in this province,” he said in justifying the increase.
Cash transit rates in Saskatchewan - source City of Moose Jaw report
In addition to the recommended cash increases Administration was also seeking to have Transit and Paratransit cash rates to the same charge.
“We expect the impact on current Paratransit customers to a little bit smaller in magnitude as the vast majority of our users in that service purchase passes.
“We have done a review of passes and we feel they are all appropriately priced so we are not looking at making an adjustment on our pass rates. (It is) only to our point of sale or cash rate at the door
Stephanson said the City realized it was for Paratransit users “a pretty significant jump” and as such the cash rate should be phased in over a two year period to mitigate the increase.
Projected Impact On The System
Stephanson said the increase in the cash price should see a resulting increase in pass users for frequent transit users while infrequent users would pay the higher cash fare.
“There is obviously a chance that this may reduce our ridership numbers. That really is anyone’s best guess on what that impact might be but we are by quite a wide margin the least expensive option for transportation out there.”
Stephanson said the utility was also requesting to come back to Council in Budget 2024 to see what impact the higher cash rates have on the system if approved. Additionally it was recommended to conduct similar annual reviews to look at ridership and there might be a “certain subsidy level we want to see or realize for our transit system and target that accordingly.”
Council Discussion
Mayor Clive Tolley said he had heard from people who said they wished last year’s cut to Saturday transit service had not occured.
“I have heard from many people, since this cold weather has hit, that they wish we had Saturday service. And last budget we decided against Saturday service and when you look at this report you see how much we are subsidizing the service from Monday to Friday,” he said.
The cut of Saturday transit service was seen as a nail in the services coffin to many. Akin to the cuts made to the transit system during former Mayor Don Mitchell’s tenure of the city.
Faced with cutbacks from the Roy Romanow govenment of the day the Mitchell administration had no choices but to cut transit services which in the day included evening service.
The loss of the provincial subsidy for transit came as a means of cost saving by Romanow’s administration after the previous Grant Devine government had taken the Province into massive debt almost causing an unprecedented default on the provincial debt.
Mayor Clive Tolley asked if someone is a regular transit customer if it was correct they should be purchasing a pass as the most economical means to access the service.
“Yes with this proposed rate structure there is a good incentive to buy a pass,” Stephanson replied.
The present monthly pass rates are $80 for an adult and $65 for a senior.
Mayor Tolley said if the ridership increased because “there was many, many people needing it to get to work and back we could potentially look at” potentially adding service in the future.
“But the people who come to me and complain they have to realize how much it is being subsidized currently,” he said.
“It is something I think is underutilized in the community. We need to increase the ridership.”
Mayor Tolley spoke about the need for a transit system but at the same time the ridership was low.
“A community needs a transit system but at the same time when there are so few people riding it at certain times it really alarms the rest of the citizens when they see three people on the bus. So we really need the community to respond and use the service more often,” he said.
Councillor Heather Eby agreed with the Mayor’s sentiments.
“Yeah a community needs transit but the community needs to use the transit that they have,” Councillor Eby said, adding “it was so cold last night and I saw a big bus go down my street with two people on it.”
“Yes it is important but people need to use it.”
“People who ride the bus are people who often don’t have any other mode of transportation”
Councillor Eby said someone had to pay for the rising costs to the transit system - either riders or property taxpayers.
“If we don’t add these costs onto the users of the service we have to add them on to the general tax payer. So I guess we have a choice we could say keep the transit lower and then we are going to have to increase the mill rate to cover that,” she said.
Councillor Crystal Froese said she worried about the impact of cash fare increases on people of lower economic means.
“My only concern is the people who are using our bus obviously tend to be lower income so spending $80 in one chunk for them might be a stretch. That is my only concern is some of the people paying ride by ride is because they don’t have the $80 to pay out of pocket right away,” Councillor Froese said.
“People who ride the bus are people who often don’t have any other mode of transportation.”
It needs to be noted people in receipt of programs paid for by Social Services receive a reduced monthly bus pass rate as the Province pays a subsidy directly to the City. The monthly pass costs $25.
People who would pay the full $80 are those not eligible for reduced rates due to their age and financial means - ie the working poor.
City manager Puffalt said a transit system is important for economic development.
“When we are looking to bring people from overseas we know a bus service is really important when talking to some of our companies that are looking to expand the service they provide. So there may be opportunities for most cost recovery on the bus service,” he said.
It should also be noted Council regularly gives away free transit service for events happening in the city. An example of this is the recent and highly touted Snowbirds 50th reunion where attendees received free transit service between venues.
Councillor Eby said she supported the increased cash fares pointing out how in the cuts made to increase ridership in 2017 had an opposite effect.
“It is still weird but maybe raising rates will do the opposite…if we don’t increase the rates for the people using transit we need to increase the taxes,” she said.
Councillor Jamey Logan said he agreed with Councillor Eby and “the shortfall has to be funded somewhere and if we were at par with other centres and if we were at a reasonable rate to begin with I would be more inclined to pass it along to the taxpayer.”
“Because it is such a cheap fare rate and because it is so low at this time I feel the correct thing to do exactly what the recommendation said and raise the rate to par with other centres. And what we see as a reasonable cost recovery rate,” Councillor Logan said.
It needs to noted although the report includes the cash fares charged by other centres it does not include those centres cost recovery rates as a comparisson.
The motion was passed with Councillor Crystal Froese the lone opponent to increasing the single ride cash transit fares.