Travelling across the Niagara region, for those who ride the bus to cities and towns outside their own, is about to get simpler and cheaper.
But as Niagara-on-the-Lake awaits the arrival of scheduled bus routes to get around town, its local transit fare is going to see a 50-cent bump.
Niagara Region Transit is launching a new One Fare, Anywhere system this summer, which is a single, unified bus fare of $3.50 across the region, replacing locally and regionally distinct fares.
It also announced a discounted benefit pass for more equitable and affordable transit access.
When the unified fare starts July 1, single-ride fares, which allow two hours of travel in any direction with unlimited transfers and no extra fees, will change from $3 locally and $6 regionally to a flat $3.50 across the board.
This means fares for adult, senior and youth riders using Microtransit — the shared-ride transit that can be used within NOTL itself, formerly NRT OnDemand — will rise to $3.50 from $3.
Transfers from Microtransit to buses that travel outside NOTL will not include a separate regional fare.
Added costs for travellers, like the increase for local travel, will be offset by savings on regional travel, says Niagara Transit Commission general manager Carla Stout.
“The key message is that transit is growing,” said Stout. “And it’s growing by leaps and bounds in Niagara.”
Currently, no conventional bus routes are operating within NOTL itself and the Microtransit system involves planning and booking a ride in advance. However, four regional routes run between Niagara College and both St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.
Adult riders will see fares on those routes drop from $6 to $3.50, and seniors and youth will see them drop from $5.
Stout said this new fare program will simplify things for transit users in the Niagara region and will mean “a significant increase in ridership.”
“This is the first time that we’ve really flattened the map in Niagara, where it doesn’t matter where you live, you still get to pay a local fare to go where you need to go.”
This new fare program is the latest step in a decade-long plan to invest in the regional transit system’s growth, Stout said, which includes plans to add a fixed-route transit system for places like NOTL.
“Essentially, our master plan is looking at reintroducing the bus to Niagara-on-the-Lake,” she said.
This process began after NOTL’s council, along with six other municipalities in the Niagara region, voted in favour of amalgamating all of the region’s transit services in 2021.
Kids 12 and under will still ride free, but day passes will no longer be available.
As for multi-ride and monthly passes, instead of adults paying $26.50 for a local 10-ride card or $45 for a regional one, they will now pay $31 for a single 10-ride card that works on both local and regional routes.
Seniors and youth, who previously paid $22 for a local card or $40 for a regional one, will now pay $20 and $25, respectively, for a single, all-access 10-ride card.
For a 31-day pass, rather than paying $85.50 for a local one or $160 for a regional one, adults will now pay $100 for a single, all-access pass, valid throughout the entire region. Seniors will pay $55 and youth $75, both down from $63 for local and $130 for regional passes.
“So if you’re a person who is living in Niagara-on-the-Lake, but you want to apply for a job in, let’s say, Welland,” Stout said. “That’s now $100 a month after July 1.”
“That makes a significant difference to somebody who can’t afford $160.”
For context, youth are ages 13 to 17, adults are 18 to 64 and seniors are 65 and older.
Stout said changes were made “to simplify the system,” since “it’s been fairly confusing.”
“It’s very hard to manage a system that not only has different levels of service on different vehicles, but also different fare structures,” she said.
Stout said Niagara Region Transit also partnered with region-managed social assistance offices to announce the discounted, $50-per-month Transit Benefit Pass.
“The transit benefit pass is the realization of a pass product that’s been needed in Niagara for years,” said Stout.
She said the goal is to make transit more affordable for people and families on Ontario Works or Ontario Disability Support Program benefits, or for those qualifying based on low-income criteria, which the region uses the 2022 Statistics Canada Low Income Measure to evaluate.
“This could affect up to 50,000 people in Niagara,” she said, adding that there is no cut-off for how many of these discount passes the region can give out.
“Not only is transit growing, but transit is for everybody,” she said.
People can start applying for the discounted pass on June 16.
The full breakdown of the fare changes can be found at nrtransit.ca/news/one-fare-and-transit-benefit-pass.
