Welland Transit fares climb

Sunday service also starts in June

Riding Welland Transit will cost a little more starting in June, as fares are set to increase.

Transit manager Alfred Stockwell spoke about the fare increase at Tuesday night’s council meeting, and about the new Sunday service and longer hours of service on Saturdays.

“The fare increase was recommended under the transit master plan,” said Stockwell.

As of June 4, it will cost $3, up from $2.75, to ride the bus for seniors, adults and students. Ten rides will cost adults $25, up from $24; students $22, up from $21; and seniors will pay $21, up from $19.

Monthly passes will also increase, as will link rides. A list of all the increases can be found on the transit website, www.welland.ca/transit/TransitFares.asp.

Stockwell said Welland Transit looked to other communities, such as Niagara Falls and St. Catharines, to see if pricing was comparable. Welland, he said, was on the lower end.

“If we’re going to invest, we need users to invest in transit as well,” he said, adding at a public meeting the reaction to the fare increase surprised him. “It went very well.”

During his presentation to council, Stockwell said Saturday services will extend to 9:15 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. on various routes in the city, with service ending at the East Main Street terminal at 10:15 p.m.

As it stands now, Saturday final runs end at 6:15 p.m. across almost all routes in the city.

The Sunday service will see buses on routes 3, 4, 6 and 9 start at 9:45 a.m. and run every hour until 4:45 p.m. Buses on routes 1, 2, 5 and 8 will start at 10:15 a.m. and run every hour until 4:15 p.m.

Ward 4 Coun. Tony Di Marco asked if the Sunday service was temporary only.

“Do you feel it will continue on a permanent basis? Have we discussed that?,” he asked.

Stockwell said he felt strongly both the extended Saturday service and new Sunday service would be very successful.

“We are telling everyone that Sunday service is just a pilot project and that we’ll report back to council on ridership levels. We don’t want a service that is empty,” he said.

Ward 2 Coun. David McLeod asked how ridership details will be collected on the new runs to ensure council makes the right decisions when it comes to Sunday service.

Stockwell said there are electronic fare boxes that tag when a fare is paid and transit will be able to take those numbers and compare expected ridership with real ridership.

The information will also go back to the city’s transit committee.

“Every meeting we review the stats and look at what and where we could improve on.”