CANMORE – Rip up your bus pass because Canmore transit is going fare-free starting on the May long weekend until the end of the year.

CANMORE – Rip up your bus pass because Canmore transit is going fare-free starting on the May long weekend until the end of the year.

The recommendation to offer fare-free transit was unanimously approved by Canmore council earlier this week, with fare-free rides running until the end of the year.

“If the goal of transit in Canmore is to move people more efficiently, increase ridership and decrease congestion than I am pleased to support it,” Councillor Joanna McCallum said at the Tuesday (May 7) council meeting.

The proposal for fare-free transit comes from the council approved Integrated Parking Management Plan. The plan set out a vision to increase transit use by five per cent by 2030. A similar fare-free pilot project launched last summer, resulted in more than 60 per cent increase in ridership according to the report to council.

Town Manager of Engineering Andy Esarte said officials are going to compare peak summer ridership numbers this year to last year’s, along with parking percentages.

The cost to implement the fare-free pilot project for the remainder of the year is approximately $72,500, with $65,000 of the cost coming from uncollected fare revenue, $5,000 in marketing expenditures in support of the initiative and an estimated $2,500 in refunds for those who already purchased a bus pass.

An operating reserve for Canmore local transit through the Bow Valley Regional Transit Commission is the source of funding and currently has a balance of $109,000.

Roam’s Chief Administrative Officer Martin Bean explained the operating reserve was created after several years of operating surpluses.

The estimated average annual cost of implementing fare-free local transit after 2019 is $105,094.

The long-term plan is to make fare-free transit permanent, although Esarte admitted administration has not identified a long-term funding source yet.

During budget deliberations last year, council directed administration to explore fare-free transit in combination with paid parking downtown – consistent with the municipality’s Parking Implementation Plan.

But Esarte said due to the complexity of paid parking and the need for extensive community engagement to ensure its success, its implementation was not possible this year. However, due to the success of last year’s fare-free pilot project and to stay in line with Canmore’s overall transportation and environment goals, the decision to make local transit free was recommended.

“What would be the measure of success?” asked Coun. Esme Comfort during the meeting.

Esarte said they would measure success of the second pilot project by ridership numbers and the amount of parking that is utilized.

It was noted in the report that by 2020, the expectation is Council will approve paid parking and the revenue for fare-free transit will be secured from this source.