St. Albert’s mayor is ready to do whatever is needed to save the U-pass program in which the city’s transit department participates.
There is growing concern over the future of the program, which provides semester-long bus passes to students at the University of Alberta, Grant MacEwan University and NAIT. Students pay for the cost of the pass in their school fees, which allows them to use Edmonton, St. Albert and Strathcona County transit.
But a proposed increase of $30 is raising concerns across the region that schools might vote it down in referendums later this spring. When introduced in 2007, the pass cost less than $100. It now costs $140 and Edmonton wants to charge $170 starting next year.
“I see it as an important because it’s a regional service that is paid for by students in part, but it’s also paid for by the transit providers,” Crouse said.
He raised his initial concerns at Monday’s council meeting. Transit director Bob McDonald informed Crouse he was attending a meeting of the U-pass committee, made up of representatives of all three transit providers and all three schools, on Monday.
Without new votes of confidence from the schools, U-pass is scheduled to expire at the end of August.
“We’ve had discussions and at this point we are consulting with our principals,” McDonald said Thursday. “We’re hoping to have a resolution maybe even as early as the end of the month.”
As a result of signing onto the U-pass program in 2007, St. Albert provided more buses for peak hours for trips to and from those institutions. The city also receives revenue from the program, anticipated at $1.3 million for 2012, according to McDonald.
But the city also subsidizes the program, as it does all transit. The target ratio is to recoup 40 per cent of costs. No specific numbers for the city’s U-pass costs were available.
Crouse said he has asked both city staff and the staff at the Capital Region Board, of which he is the chair, to look into the U-pass to see if he needs to do anything.
“In reality it might be too late because the students are weighing in on this thing at a faster pace,” he said.
The first school to vote in the plebiscite, NAIT, will do so on Feb. 14. NAIT students barely approved adopting U-pass in 2009.
“I’m ready to help if needed,” Crouse said. “As CRB chair, if I have to wear that hat, and as St. Albert mayor, if I have to wear that.”
