Fare cards could hurt poor

Transit system to stop using bus tickets

WATERLOO REGION — The Region of Waterloo has some issues to overcome to ensure poor people won’t be disadvantaged by a new electronic transit fare system.

Later this year or early in 2017, Grand River Transit will start converting to a fare card system, which is electronic. Passengers will be required to either pay their fare with coins or electronic fare cards.

There are advantages — more accurate ridership counts, better tracking of the U-Pass system for university students and operational savings. But many local social agencies buy bus tickets and give them to clients as single rides. The region also pays for bus tickets under the discretionary benefits program.

Single tickets won’t be offered with the new system because each electronic card costs 60 cents to make.

“We won’t be offering individual tickets,” said Eric Gillespie, director of transit services. “What we’re looking at is a limited-use pass with two rides on it and so we’re working with the social services agencies.”

No decisions have been made yet on how to deal with the issue, but Coun. Tom Galloway said it’s possible savings on other components of switching to the fare cards could be applied to the cost of making limited-use passes.

“I think the bottom line is we want to make sure that the rides are still taken for those people that really need them, so we don’t want to shortchange the number of rides that are available under the various programs,” he said.

Gillespie said there will be discussions with social agencies and the school boards about potentially cost-sharing the 60 cents per card.

A report will come to regional council for a decision.

There will be about a sixmonth window to complete the conversion from tickets to cards and install the new technology on buses.

What passengers should know:

Bills will no longer be accepted for fares on the bus at full implementation. More bill-to-coin machines are expected to be installed for passengers.

The same fare system will be in place when light rail starts up, which is planned for 2018. Fares won’t be accepted on light rail vehicles. Instead, there will be ticket validators at light rail platforms.

Staff is still deciding whether there will be a minimum purchase required on electronic fare cards.

Current photo identification pass programs such as the Transportation Affordability Pass Program are expected to transition to the smart card system without issue.

There will also be an unlimited ride pass that can be shared, for example, among family members.

If a card runs out of cash there will be an “overdraft” capability to provide another ride until the cardholder can top up.