It will be more affordable to take transit in Thunder Bay in 2022.

Monday’s council meeting saw a discussion surrounding the 2022-2026 Transit Fare Strategy. What will be attempted is a pilot project that would affect how much the majority of riders in the city are paying.

“When it comes to the pricing of transit, it’s really all about affordability,” explained Manager of Transit Services Brad Loroff. “Would I say that price alone is the sole deciding factor for increased transit ridership, I would say no, you also need good transit service. If you have something at a low cost or if it’s free, if it’s of low value, people aren’t going to use a lot of it.”

One of the significant differences will be what is considered a ‘child rider,’ which will be changed from 5 and under to 12 and under. This would mean those who are under 13 will be able to ride transit free in Thunder Bay.

The changes to age categories are being recommended to:

Respond to concerns about the cost of transit for youth (particularly ages 18-24) and for
young families identified in the fare strategy review process.
Support Thunder Bay teens and young adult employment strategies
Create opportunities to attract new adult riders and increase adult ridership by reducing
the total cost of travel for families.

At-Large Councillor Aldo Ruberto chimed in on the discussion, explaining that it is understandable for the city to lose some money if it means benefitting those who need it most.

“We subsidize a lot of things in Thunder Bay just to enhance people’s quality of life,” says Ruberto. “For marginalized people, I don’t know how much we do subsidize in terms of trying to give them a better quality of life or trying to stretch that dollar for them. Those are people of all the people that need to stretch that dollar because they’re very limited in the resources they have.”

This comes as we see transit slowly recovering after being used considerably less during the pandemic. As of Sept. 2021, ridership was at 56 per cent of pre-pandemic levels.

There would be one increase, being to adult monthly passes which would see a jump from $77.50 to $80.00. The Transit Fare Strategy does note that the city offers comparatively low rates overall, and adult monthly passes have only seen a 0.6 per cent increase since 2017.

The full 2022-2026 Transit Fare Strategy can be found here.