Calgary Transit Riders Are Being Asked for Input about Rising Fares

If you use the Calgary Transit system, you are asked to visit their website to participate in an interactive survey. Residents are being asked to look through the questions being asked and to provide their opinions. A series of hypothetical rate increases are shown and the site points out how much money would be raised with the price hikes.

Calgary Transit suggests that an increase of $10 million in fair revenues would be needed in combination with $10 million more in tax revenues. This is the amount that would be required to give customers what they would like to see in the Calgary Transit system. Some of these items include longer hours, more trains, more buses and more comfortable, safer and cleaner riding conditions.

Calgary Transit needs at least another $18 million annually in order to support its 30-year vision of ambitious growth. Many different approaches are coming to the table regarding the best ways to bring in the extra revenue. Some of the suggestions include fare changes, zone-based fares, parking, charter and airport services and tax hikes.

The website gives residents the chance to see the different effects that these changes would have through a hypothetical exercise. Officials will be putting together the next 4-year budget that will be approved this fall by city council. To see the survey you can visit calgarytransit.com. It will be available on the website until the middle of May.

As a rider and user of the Calgary Transit system, you'll be able to see what kind of difference the various rate hikes would make. For example, by raising the adult rate for a single trip by five cents, there would be a total of $1.1 million extra revenue brought in. By raising the yearly pass for seniors by $1, the additional revenue would total $13,400. When you're on the site you’ll be able to play around with these figures and you can leave your comments at the bottom of the page.