Ottawa’s previous city council gave transit users free fares for a month after a lengthy LRT shutdown. Why not now?
Published Aug 03, 2023 • 6 minute read
If all goes according to plan, Ottawa’s LRT will be back on the rails in mid-August and the transit system will gradually be heading for normalcy.
By that time, transit users will have endured four weeks of long commutes, crowded buses and frustration.
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Since the beginning of the shutdown on July 17, Renée Amilcar, the city’s general manager of transit services, has been under pressure to say what will be done to compensate riders for the inconvenience. After all, in December 2021, free fares were offered in response to two derailments on the Confederation Line LRT, including one that kept the system down for nearly two months.
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But the question of what compensation to offer is a political decision in the hands of city councillors. And it will likely be Aug. 23 at the next city council meeting when the subject will be debated.
Here’s what is known so far — and what is not.
Q: Why doesn’t the city just give transit users free fares for a month?
A: There’s a range of possibilities, from free ridership for everyone for a given period of time to no compensation at all.
The question is what is fair, and whether there should be “blanket” compensation for everyone. Some transit users were late to work and were docked pay, for example. Others incurred extra daycare costs because they were late to pick up their children.
But it would be hard to create a mechanism that separates transit users according to how much inconvenience each one experienced.
“A lot of people won’t be affected by this,” said Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo, a member of the transit commission. He’s open to hearing ideas about how to compensate people, but he’s not in favour of blanket compensation.
River Ward Coun. Riley Brockington, also a member of the city’s transit commission, believes that if there is compensation, it will be global in nature. In the meantime, if people have evidence that they have been out-of-pocket because of the shutdown, OC Transpo will listen, he said.
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Q: The previous city council voted to give transit users free fares for a month in December 2021. Why not now?
A: It’s one option. The estimated cost of free fares in 2021 was $7.2 million, with the money coming from funds the city was withholding from RTG in the wake of the derailments.
But the financial context is much different now, said Glen Gower, the chair of the city’s transit commission. Tops on the list of constraints is the $39 million deficit in the transit budget this spring. With a financial hole that big, there’s not a lot of wiggle room.
“The concern is that we have built a budget with a $39 million deficit, and we’re talking about a fare reduction. That’s not free,” said River Ward Coun. Laine Johnson.
Q: Where will the money to cover the $39 million deficit come from?
A: That’s also unclear. The city was hoping for funding from the province or the federal government, but there was no money for Ottawa transit deficits in either the provincial or the federal budget this year.
“We have an ongoing request to other levels of government. They’re very aware of the deficit situation,” said Gower.
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Ridership is still a question. In May, Line 1 ridership was 4.8 million, compared to 7.2 million in May 2019, before the pandemic. But the numbers have been rebounding this spring, said Gower. Figures for the period including the LRT shutdown will be available later this month.
There are other concerns including hidden deferred costs, such as not buying new buses to replace ageing vehicles. How that has strained the budget will only become obvious when they become inconvenient and costly, said Kari Glynes Elliott, one of the founders of Ottawa Transit Riders.
Q: How much would the city lose if transit were free for a month?
A: Revenue from transit fares comes to about $7 to $8 million a month. When the LRT isn’t running, the city isn’t paying $4 to $5 million a month to the Rideau Transit Group (RTG), which has the contract for maintaining the LRT system.
Subtract the RTG payment from lost fare revenue and that suggests it would only cost around $3 million to give riders free fares for a month. But the equation is not as simple as that, said Gower. There are costs behind some of the measures taken to replace train service, including overtime, customer service workers and signage.
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It may take some time before there can be a full accounting, but these numbers will be available in the coming weeks, he said.
“It will give us the framework. We’re proceeding with an open mind and a lot of caution, given the strain we’re under financially.”
There is also the question of whether savings from this past month — if there are any — would be better spent on improvIng service on busy routes and investing in ParaTranspo.
“Perhaps the best compensation would be to double down on the commitment to ensure OC Transpo is a reliable service,” said Gower.
Q: Does compensation money have to come from the city transit budget?
A: Not necessarily. There are other options, but none of them are an easy source of money to fund compensation for riders. Budgets in all city departments are already stretched, said Gower. There’s also a general reserve fund, but it’s not well-advised to pull money from that fund because the money is held for emergencies such as tornado response.
Q: What about adding the cost to municipal tax bills?
A: There’s a reluctance to raise taxes. In July 2021, a consultant’s report concluded that free transit would cost the owner of a home valued at $415,000 an extra $482 a year in property taxes. Both former mayor Jim Watson and current Mayor Mark Sutcliffe, then a mayoral candidate, balked at the idea of free transit.
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“If you’re not paying at the fare box, they you’re going to pay for it on your property tax bill and a 13-per cent hit on your property taxes, from my perspective, is not a wise decision,” said Watson then.
But others argue that reliable free transit should be seen as a public good, like libraries and emergency services.
Free Transit Ottawa is advocating for free fares for everyone, starting with those on social assistance.
Nick Grover, a member of the group’s executive, argues that public transit can be both free and good. “If more was spent on the system, it would attract more users.”
If taxes were increased by $400 to $500, free transit would replace $1,200 spent annually on a bus pass or $10,000 in car expenses, he said.
Anecdotally at least, more people are commuting by car because of glitches in public transit. Once people start driving, it’s hard to stop. And that has a cost to everyone as roadways become congested and no one can travel conveniently, said Johnson.
“It’s all connected. The alternative is a disaster,” she said.
Q: Will free or reduced fares win back the confidence of transit users?
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A: Probably not. People will likely reserve judgement based on the performance of the system — and be hypersensitive to any blips in the system after the LRT re-launch.
“Most of our members have been blunt that they want transit that works, and they’re willing to pay for it,” said Elliott. “Free transit that doesn’t work doesn’t serve us.”
A financial incentive might help to take the sting out of it, but users may not even return to transit, even if it is free, said Brockington.
“We will never be regarded as a reliable transit service until we provide a consistent service,” said Brockington, who believes it will take at least a year, including winter.
People might appreciate the gesture, but it won’t increase trust, said Lo.
“The best advertising for transit is word-of-mouth.”
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