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Transfers to be scrapped under revamped bus fare schedule

A revamped transit fare schedule that will do away with transfers while also encouraging users to purchase passes that give them an unlimited amount of rides for the day will come into force in September.
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A revamped transit fare schedule that will do away with transfers while also encouraging users to purchase passes that give them an unlimited amount of rides for the day will come into force in September.

The changes, approved by city council on Monday night, include increasing the fares students and seniors will pay for cash fares and 10-ticket books to the same levels adults pay, translating into increases of 50 cents and $4.50 respectively.

But a DayPASS, which allows a rider to use the bus through an entire calendar day, will drop to $5, a decline of 25 cents for students and seniors and $1.25 for adults.

And in the process, transfers will be eliminated. They provide a 90-minute window for a one-way trip that requires more than one bus but are often abused with riders using them to make round trips.

Transfers are the "number one cause of conflict between operators and the public as well as a means for fare fraud through the use of expired transfers," BC Transit manager of sales and revenue Ryan Dennis told council during a presentation.

Dennis said the same program is now in place in Victoria and Nanaimo and added ridership has increased in both communities as a result. He attributed the rise to two reasons - the convenience of the DayPASS, which can be purchased onboard a bus, and "greater use of monthly passes as those become more affordable relative to frequent purchases of the DayPASS."

The cost of monthly passes will rise. Adults will pay $60, up $2.50 and students and seniors will be charged $50, a $2 increase.

Also, student semester passes will rise by $10 to $135. BC Transit had been pushing for a $160 student semester pass, but city council's finance and audit committee turned down the proposal.

A ProPASS, purchased by employees through payroll deductions, will cost $51.50 per month, up $2.15.

And registered handyDART users will pay $2.50 per cash fare ride, up 25 cents. That did not sit well with Coun. Murry Krause, who noted many seniors and people with disabilities are on fixed incomes and rely on transit to get to medical appointments.

In response, BC Transit government relations manager Rob Ringma said he is close to completing a report that he will forward to city staff on improvements to the HandyDART service that will help justify the increase.

BC Transit is also in the process of outfitting buses with technology that will allow customers to use their phones and computers to determine if a bus is on time or behind schedule. The technology should be in place by this fall, council was told.

"If you see that your bus is five minutes late, that's five minutes extra that you can spend indoors, warm," Ringma said.

Also, on weekend, adult passengers using a prepaid fare type such as a DayPASS, will be able to bring along up to four children, up from the current two.

As it stands, 29 per cent of the system's cost is recovered through the users, two percentage points below the average for tier one systems province wide "and is projected to continue to decrease towards 30 per cent if we maintain the current fare structure," city transit planner Champa Maduranayagam told council.

Based on the experiences in Victoria and Nanaimo, revenue from the changes is expected to rise by six per cent, or $107,763 and ridership is projected to go up three per cent or 49,298 rides.