Riders of Airdrie Transit will see an increase in fares for the first time since 2007.
Effective Jan. 1, 2015, local transit riders will pay $2.25 per trip and prices are increasing across the board.
In 2007, the council of the day increased the fare from $2 to $2.10.
A ticket booklet of 10 tickets will go up from $17.50 to $20, adult monthly passes will see a bump from $60 to $65 and student and senior monthly passes will have a slight increase from $45 to $47.50.
Intercity Express (ICE) bus fares will also see increases for all types of fares. Cash fare for a single ride will increase from $8 to $9, a booklet of 10 ICE passes will increase from $65 to $75, adult monthly passes will increase from $195 to $200 and students and seniors monthly passes will see the same $5 increase from $150 to $155.
Transit Team Leader Chris MacIsaac provided council with a comparison of Airdrie’s current fare structure to other municipalities in Alberta and across Canada during the regular council meeting on June 16.
“We haven’t changed our fares since 2007 and right now we are less than both the provincial and national average,” said MacIsaac.
“We believe these increases are reasonable, given the market comparable communities.”
Airdrie Transit’s current cash fare is on par with that of Bow Valley at $2, and less than the majority of the other communities it was compared with.
The national average for cash fares in comparable communities was $2.43. Adult monthly passes averaged a price of $62.80, while youth passes averaged around $49.50 and seniors passes at around $43.
Fares will also be increasing for the Airdrie’s Transit Riders Support Program (TRSP), a program that is in place for individuals who meet low-income qualifications that provides bus service at a reduced rate.
Rates will be increasing across the board for TRSP riders, though they will still see significant discounts. For comparison, a regular adult monthly pass will cost $65 as of Jan. 1, 2015, while TRSP riders will pay $47.50 for the same pass.
The increases are projected to result in an additional $65,000 to $75,000 in revenue generated by user fees, with about 75 per cent of that coming from ICE users.
“Transit administration is recommending these fare increases to recover the operating costs for service provision,” said MacIsaac.
Council voted unanimously in favour of the fee increases.
