City services up, transit fees down

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This article was published 03/12/2011 (5142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The costs of accessing city services will, on the whole, rise an average of three to four per cent, however unlike Winnipeg, Brandon Transit cash fares are set to be slashed by as much as a loonie if the city fee schedule is approved by city council.

Adult cash transit fares are set to drop 47 per cent to $1.15 from the $2.15 riders now pay. But there’s a catch. Lower cash fares also mean the elimination of transfer tickets, meaning getting off the bus to run an errand will cost riders another $1.15 to get back on the bus. That adds 15 cents to a return trip.

“For any of those people that used to use a transfer and paid cash, they won’t see change,” said Rod Sage, the city’s operations manager. “Those transfers were a nightmare for transit operators and tend to get abused by individuals and trying to track those transfers with operators, it’s antiquated. At the end of the day, we want more people on the bus and we hope it even becomes more attainable for our youth.”

The whole transit fare structure was turned upside down after a consultant reviewed the department’s operations last spring. For example, adult ticket fares will drop 70 cents to $1 each, while books of 10 tickets, now $17 will drop to $10.

Youth and senior cash rates will drop 90 cents per ride from $1.65, with ticket rates dropping to 80 cents, from $1.45. Ticket books also drop, to $8 from $14.50.

“We want to make it economically viable for people to use this system,” Sage said. “Now the theory is we will attract new users to the system that we didn’t have before, so the revenues shouldn’t drop. If we double our ridership, we haven’t lost any revenue.”

While the cash and ticket prices are being slashed, monthly pass rates will remain stable and the off-peak pass will be eliminated.

“Off-peak passes were being abused and there was a black market for them,” Sage said. “It was originally designed to allow user groups to use the system during off peak hours, but we had various groups still wanting to use the bus during peak times and that created conflict between a user and an operator.”

Adult passes will be $66 per month, while youth and senior passes will go for $38.

Post-secondary passes will remain $43.

Handi-Transit rides will be $3.75 each for up to 60 trips per month.

Sage said the next phase of change will see Brandon Transit eventually move to a reloadable smart card system, which operates like using a store gift card.

At the Wheat City Golf Course, season passes will increase two per cent, with adult rates increasing to $775 from $760 in 2010, the last year the full course was available. Eighteen-hole green fees will increase by $1 to $33, while the nine-hole rate will increase by $3 from last year to $16.50.

“Our season pass rate has actually dropped from where it was supposed to be for 2011,” said Bryce Wilson, the city’s manager of recreational development. “We’ll have to look at the nine-hole rate to start the year. There have been no major increases as cart storage remains the same and cart rental is the same. There will be fee increases in 2013 of roughly three per cent.”

On the overall, golf fees were streamlined as the couples’ season pass and student green fees and season passes were eliminated. There was little demand for the couples rates any more and students now qualify for the junior rates, which were identical in 2011.

“We want people of all ages to come and play,” Wilson said. “It’s just being clumped together, where before ages 13-18 was a rate, then 18-25 was a rate. As for couples, when we had 178 members, only four couples passes were sold. We just want to make it simpler for everyone.”

One change will be the addition of a nine-hole trail fee rate for power carts of $4.50, half of the $9 18-hole rate.

It will now cost 33 per cent more to request a special meeting of the planning commission to $750, up from $500, to cover the actual costs of the service.

None of the proposed fees can be part of the 2012 budget without first being approved by city council, likely on Dec. 19.

» kborkowsky@brandonsun.com