Calgary Transit passes to jump to $90

C algary Transit monthly passes are slated to rise to $90 in January, based on the same city budget that proposes a clawback of next year’s plans for service improvements.

It’s a 5.6 per cent jump from the currently monthly fee of $85.25, and marks the third straight annual hike.

It was planned back when council set a three-year budget plan for 2009-2011, but it hasn’t been adjusted as a deficit-fighting city hall has recommended that aldermen support only a 2.5 per cent boost in transit service levels — fewer than half the route improvements planned earlier.

The revised budget plan council will debate at month’s end also erases several hires slated in transit cleaning and maintenance.

Some transit riders aren’t happy about the proposed bump in the cost of a regular monthly pass. Mila Landu points out the poor economy and questions the timing of an increase. "That’s too much," Landu said Sunday. "There’s no jobs. People used to have two jobs, three jobs, now there’s no job. How are they going to afford it?"

Others agree: "It’s not good," Roland Catoras said as he waited for a C-Train at Rundle Station.

And Ald. Druh Farrell is concerned that the city wants to "nibble at the edges" of its heavily used transit system.

"Our numbers are healthy. I think we want to continue that," she said.

Since the fee hike wasn’t adjusted since the three-year budget was set in 2008, it’s not mentioned on the city’s much-advertised website touting the 2011 budget adjustments.

Rather, it’s located in a table deep within the 2009-11 budget binder released two years ago, when council also approved the 6.7 per cent tax increase that’s being advertised and debated among aldermen, media and Calgarians.

Prices for cash fares, ticket-book and the price for youth or seniors are not slated to rise, although the subsidized pass for low-income residents would go from $41.50 to $45.

Council is also being asked to consider slicing deeper into transit-service plans in the optional "buffet" of additional cuts Mayor Naheed Nenshi demanded to help bring in a lower tax increase or find room to do other things, such as scrap the $3 park-and-ride fee.

A city finance spokeswoman, who’s been assigned to speak on behalf of Calgary Transit’s budget plans, said transit planners have not yet mapped out what routes will be expanded or not under the proposed spending blueprint.

Ald. John Mar argued that public transit is still a "bargain" in Calgary, since the city covers much of the program’s cost. "The fact of the matter is this is a service that does not pay for itself," he said.