Councillor dusts off pitch for free rides on the HSR

In the midst of a no-show bus crisis, one city councillor wants to study the idea of offering everyone a free ride on HSR.

It’s actually the second time Coun. Sam Merulla has pitched free transit in Hamilton.

Council passed on the idea in 2007 soon after learning free rides would mean a six per cent tax hike, or an average of an extra $150 per old city property taxpayer.

But that was a decade ago and “a different time,” argued the Ward 4 councillor, who served notice at Friday’s transit budget meeting he would bring forward a motion for a feasibility study.

“This is a change that would truly transform the transit system,” he said. So what is different this time? Well, other Canadian cities have experimented with limited free transit, including a no pay C-Train zone in Calgary, a free downtown bus route in Winnipeg and a “kids ride free” policy in Toronto.

Hamilton has a mixed record on free ride initiatives.

For example, council axed a “voluntary pay” option for cane users in 2013 based on fraud concerns and opted against a kids-ridefree proposal in 2015. On the other hand, riders over the age of 80 and younger than four years old do not have to pay.

The HSR also embarked on a series of unpopular fare hikes starting in xcdfrt2015 to raise cash to improve and expand the transit system.

But ridership has fallen in every year since the fare hikes began — and the city was recently forced to cancel nearly 600 buses last month for lack of available drivers. The city will now begin hiring more to deal with the crisis.

Merulla argues free rides would put more butts on the bus — providing social, employment, pollution-fighting and congestion-reducing benefits along the way.

Those benefits didn’t sway councillors in 2007. But this time, Merulla is asking for cost estimates based on another controversial change: eliminating area rating of transit.

Since amalgamation, suburban and rural areas have paid varying transit tax rates based on historic availability of bus service. Council voted earlier this term to put off a debate on whether to axe area-rated transit until next term.

But Merulla said the debate will re-emerge eventually, and a more equitable sharing of transit costs would cut the theoretical tab for free transit. Right now, the net tax levy cost of transit operations in Hamilton is about $45 million.

Other transit news coming out of Friday’s budget meeting includes:

Newly installed security camera started rolling Friday on HSR buses, part of a $1.7million effort to make transit safer, particularly for drivers facing assaults.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger will bring a motion calling for a hurry-up timeline to buy electric buses, rather than those fuelled by diesel or compressed natural gas.