The City of St. John's is putting public discussion about Metrobus on hold until decisions are made on a new service for university and college students.

Dave Lane, councillor at large, says public consultations on the city's review of its transit plans will wait until after a referendum on a universal transit pass for students is held next month.

He said the decision on the U-Pass could have a significant effect on future plans for Metrobus.

"With the fact that students are currently thinking about 'am I going to vote yes or no for this,' we wanted to give them the opportunity to go through that process before we really talk with the public about what we're thinking of doing," Lane told CBC Radio's On The Go.

He said the U-Pass would give all students at Memorial University and College of the North Atlantic a semester pass at a reduced price. Students would pay for the pass along with tuition and other fees, giving them full access to the bus service.

"For a lot of students, they already get a semester pass at the regular price, but if all students participated in the program, then we could reduce that price," said Lane.

Improved service for all

The additional revenues would improve the service for everyone, Lane said, and allow riders to go farther, faster.

"We could invest in — they call it shorter headways so that you actually, instead of waiting 30 minutes for the next bus, you're only waiting 15," he said.

"And also, maybe we could extend the service a little bit."

A Metrobus pulls into Memorial University. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

Lane said there would likely be opportunities for some students to opt out of the service, however.

"If you don't live within the service area of Metrobus, maybe you'll have the ability to opt out, or if there's some reason why you are unable to take the bus system you can opt out," he said.

"But for the most part, we want to get a good proportion of the student body taking advantage of this."

Memorial University is holding an information session to share the details of the proposed U-Pass on Thursday, Jan. 31.

The university said full-time students registered at the St. John's campus, Centre for Nursing Studies, and Marine Institute will have the opportunity to vote on the proposed program from Feb. 26 to 28.

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