After drawing success from its free local transit for youth pilot program, St. Albert could be considering extending free transit services to seniors.
Later this month, a committee of city council is set to debate offering free local bus tickets to residents over the age of 65, people who are “most likely” to need transit services and “least likely to be able to afford it,” according to one city councillor.
The motion is being brought forward by Coun. Ray Watkins, who was not available for an interview.
Coun. Sheena Hughes said in her opinion local transit is underutilized, partially due to cost, and offering the service for free will help fill buses that are on the road anyway.
“I'd rather have people in the buses rather than see them drive around empty. Because they're driving around either way,” she said, adding she does not see ticket sales from seniors as a revenue generator.
St. Albert rolled out a “student ride free” program in March, which was originally set to expire in July 2020. But during 2020 budget deliberations, city council decided to extend the program to the end of 2020.
Since the pilot began, monthly youth ridership has more than tripled, from 1,400 trips to 5,980 monthly trips.
If free local transit is extended to seniors, the cost impact to St. Albert would be an estimated $44,700, according to a response to an information request Coun. Natalie Joly filed. That includes a reduction in Handibus service revenues.
Serge Tanguay, a senior St. Albert Transit rider who lives on a fixed income, said leaving extra cash in seniors’ pockets would definitely be helpful.
“That will help, that's for sure,” he said. However, Tanguay lives in downtown Edmonton and uses commuter services to visit St. Albert. Commuter services are not being considered for the pilot.
Hughes said there is a great social benefit to offering free transit to seniors – people who are often the least likely to generate additional income as they age.
Those benefits include targeting a demographic often living on pensions that do not adjust with inflation. It could also potentially decrease social isolation by encouraging elderly folks to leave the house.
“Everything becomes much more difficult for them as they get older and I think they might actually try using (transit) a bit more," Hughes said.
However, Hughes does have concerns the free transit program may not be sustainable, if St. Albert decides to tie its transit system into other regional municipalities’ systems.
Council is set to debate a business case for tying area transit systems into one integrated regional system later this month.
“Whether or not youth and/or seniors will be able to continue, and in what form, to have free local transit (under) this merger is ... up in the air,” Hughes said, adding each municipality could need to get approval from a regional board to subsidize programs.
Watkins’ motion will be debated at council’s community growth and infrastructure standing committee meeting Jan. 13 in the Douglas Cardinal Boardroom at 1:30 p.m. If the committee decides it should proceed, it will come back to a regular council meeting at a later date.
