-by Hub staff

"Revenues from transit services have been falling due to declining ridership." That's the simple fact stated in the Owen Sound 2017 Budget agenda.

A marketing strategy for increasing ridership is part of 2017 plans, but Councillor Scott Greig wonders if ridership, and revenue, would increase if the fare were simply lower? By his calculation, reducing the fare by 50 cents a ride would cost approximately $30,000 if there were no change in ridership.

The gross cost of the Owen Sound transit system is $1.4 million – approximately $800,000 of that comes from the taxpayers of Owen Sound. For a public service that serves people with few transportation options, Greig asked if a fare reduction worth the experiment?  The subject will return to the Operations Committee for discussion.

The net increase in our contract with First Transit to operate our transit and specialized transit for 2017 will be $54,000.

The good news in transit is income of approximately $25000 from leasing a portion of the transit terminal and collecting commissions from Greyhound. Smaller buses and low gas prices have reduced the transit fuel budget by $20,000.