[URBAN NOTE] "More public transit riders, paying far more to ride"

[rfmcdonald]

MacLean's writer Vidya Kauri notes (more data at the site) that while transit use is rising quickly across Canada, so too are user fees. More money to subsidize mass transit--better fundraising generally--would be helpful.

Statistics Canada recently released data on urban transit ridership and revenues for the full year of 2013, and when looking back over the past decade a clear picture emerges: More people in cities are turning to transit to get around, but at the same time, it’s costing them a lot more to do so.

[. . . W]hile ridership is on the rise, passengers are increasingly feeling it in their wallets. Revenues for transit systems (excluding subsidies) have skyrocketed by comparison, a sign of how fast transit fares are rising. Yes, transit systems draw revenue from other sources, like advertising, but it’s minor. Just slightly more than two per cent of the Toronto Transit Commission’s operating revenue comes from ads. This shouldn’t necessarily come as a surprise, when you consider Canadian cities have some of the highest transit fares in North America.

For those who like to grumble that people who take transit get a free ride, the data make it clear just how much deeper riders are having to dig. Yes, transit is heavily subsidized, but the cost to riders is rising incredibly fast. At the same time, it raises the question—at what point will soaring fares deter people from taking transit?