No sponsor emerges to give seniors free transit, and odds are even worse for young riders

Free transit is still being dangled as a possibility for Brampton’s seniors, but it looks like youth are out of luck. 

City councillors received two reports on transit Wednesday. The first explored free travel for seniors, while the second suggested incentivized travel for young people would cost too much.

The idea of free transit for seniors was first raised at a council meeting on March 20, with Mayor Patrick Brown in particular advocating zero-fare travel for residents over the age of 65. During the same meeting, council approved a $15-per-month senior pass. 

Mayor Patrick Brown

The $15 pass has been purchased by 2,200 senior residents since it was introduced in August. They cost less than 50 cents per day, but the city is still considering zero fares if sponsorships can be found to cover the $750,000 loss to Brampton Transit.

“I do believe there are avenues to provide sponsorship for this,” Brown had told councillors. “I know one local business who said they would jump at the opportunity to have signage associated with sponsoring the cost of seniors’ transit fares.”

But no sponsorship has materialized. According to the report, staff from the corporate sponsorship office met “on multiple occasions” to discuss the deal, but nothing was agreed. The sponsorship team is continuing to search.

Brown was absent from the committee of council meeting on Wednesday on a municipal trip to Germany and was unavailable for comment. 

The report was received without questions, even though the hopes for zero-cost fares seem to be crumbling. Brampton Transit is already suffering serious budget pressures that prompted the addition of a 1 percent transit levy on tax bills last year, which will contribute $9.7 million to this year’s budget. With rapidly rising ridership leading to overcrowded buses, there is pressure to expand services, which will require major capital spending. All of that means absorbing the cost of free senior transit may be a challenge.

Brampton Transit manager Alex Milojevic said reducing transit fares was a “priority” for the current mayor and council.

“Typically any senior resident in our community who is using transit has a need,” he said. “Senior residents who have a car won’t use transit, but those that don’t have no other means of getting around and getting to medical appointments.”

Addressing the issue of capacity, Milojevic pointed out that seniors tend to travel off-peak, reducing the strain that might otherwise be put on the system by offering free ridership. 

“I think during our report writing, we looked at the impacts of increasing the capacity and the increase in ridership that we expect to get from seniors. We don’t see it as being significant enough to jeopardize our capacity. The total senior ridership is not a big ridership for us, so we think that the incremental rise in rides by seniors won’t impact our capacity. Typically, seniors tend to travel on off-peak periods when we do have more capacity.”

At the other end of the age spectrum, a second report presented various transit initiatives for youth, including the concept of a free pass for 12- to 14-year-olds modelled on Mississauga MiWay’s Freedom Pass. 

Young people are a key demographic for public transit, according to the report. Youth ridership has grown by more than 300 percent over the past decade. In 2018, youth aged 13 to 19 made up 18 percent of all rides on Brampton Transit. As a result, the report concludes, offering a free pass is too costly. 

While seniors can now take advantage of a $15 monthly Presto pass, young people currently get only a 19 percent discount off adult fares, paying $2.55 on a single ride with a Presto card versus the adult fare of $3.10. 

Most policies for young riders on Brampton Transit relate to teaching young people how to use the system, not making it cheaper or more accessible. Some 46 youth initiatives were in place in 2018, with a new addition for 2019 teaching students to plan trips, pay fares and load a PRESTO card.

Councillor Harkirat Singh

Councillor Harkirat Singh, who has previously worked on school boards in Brampton, told The Pointer that council could be doing more to reduce transit fares for young people, too. After taking a group of youth cadets around city hall on Wednesday, Singh said the majority told him they took public transport regularly. 

“I know from my experience from my campaign that many youths do take public transport for many reasons,” he said. “Some just recreationally, some after school, and some of them have to for their education as well. It is not only out of choice, it is out of necessity as well.”

“We could always do more; that’s the reality,” Singh added, admitting that he had yet to settle on a preferred course of action. “Just as there are passes with the university, there is obviously some responsibility that the school board bears and some that we bear as the public provider.” 

He called for more discussion to find opportunities to collaborate.

“I definitely want to explore introducing some sort of pass, but what it looks like [should be considered further]. Is it just for peak time? Or just at not-peak times? That sort of issue needs to be ironed out.”

Singh, who says youth transit access is a priority for his council term, also floated the idea of sponsorship to fund a youth transit pass — despite the apparent lack of interest in the senior project. He added that any kind of free youth transit would be a “substantial hit on the budget.” 

Free transit for seniors seems a higher priority to council, but at $750,000 per year — the report projects the cost will rise to more than $1 million by 2030 — it is pricey, too. With seniors expected to make up 19 percent of Peel Region’s population by 2046, according to provincial government figures, the growing cost could add considerably more strain to Brampton’s overburdened transit system.

Councillors will have to wait until budget time to decide whether they can proceed with free transit for seniors without a sponsor. Young people may have to wait much longer to catch a break.

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