Photo: KTW file photo.

A Kamloops council committee has recommended a gradual increase in bus fares.

City of Kamloops transportation staff say Thompson Rivers University students make up half of the city’s transit users — and an expected decline in international enrolment could mean less revenue to support the bus system.

During Tuesday’s committee of the whole meeting, Kamloops council members approved a gradual increase in transit fees after hearing fares hadn’t increased in 14 years — and low fares made it more difficult to cover operational expenses.

Nii Noi Akuetteh, the city’s transportation engineer, said since the last fare review, the city is facing increased operational costs and planned transit expansions that require additional funding.

He noted additional revenue is needed to offset a projected decrease from declining TRU enrolment.

“Due to the federal foreign policy changes, TRU is forecasting lower student enrolment, specifically international student enrolment. The reason this is important is because TRU students form approximately 50 per cent of our ridership — and therefore a dip in student enrolment automatically means revenue from TRU could dip too,” Akuetteh said.

Government policy changes have caused TRU's new international enrolment to drop by hundreds in the fall and winter semesters, forcing the university to reduce spending by millions in next year's budget.

“The decrease in enrolment, coupled with increased operational costs and our planned transit would mean that we will need some revenue increases to offset these projected decreases.”

He noted Kamloops has lower fares than similar transit systems in other cities — an average difference of $0.50 for a single use pass to a $11.75 difference for an adult monthly pass.

David Hallinan, the city’s corporate services director, added the transit system is funded by a combination of taxation, BC Transit contributions, and user fees. Past councils have approved additional service hours, and while the taxation portion of the funding model has increased, user fees have lagged behind.

The committee of the whole was presented with four options for fare increases, opting for a plan that would gradually increase the cost of fares and fare products every two years until 2029, with the option of extending this schedule.

With this plan, the cost of a single-use pass would rise from $2 to $2.25 this fall, $2.50 by September 2027, and $3.00 in September 2029.

The cost of a day pass would increase from $4 to $4.50 this fall up to $6 by 2029. An adult monthly pass would rise from $50 to $55 this fall, and would cost $70 as of September 2029.

Across all options, there was a minimal increase in concession fares, while the student semester pass, health connection fares and U-Pass are exempt from the fare review.

All at once?

Coun. Kelly Hall said he felt the gradual fare increase was better for the community and bus ridership, and would give council more time to evaluate how to increase transit performance.

“This gives you an opportunity to have a vision, to enhance the services over a period of time. It also gives the rider an opportunity to adjust based on the transit fares that are going to be charged over that period of time,” Hall said.

Coun. Nancy Bepple said she preferred another option, which would have seen fares rise in alignment with similar transit systems in other cities. Passes would see a single increase, with day passes rising from $4 to $6, and monthly passes from $50 to $70.

Bepple said a healthy reserve would allow the city to provide more transit service hours at a faster rate, with studies showing people are willing to pay a little more for better transit service.

“The price is actually less important than the service that they can get — and we can get to better service faster by going to [this option],” she said.

But Coun. Katie Neustaeter said the gradual option provided the “predictability of increase without sticker shock,” noting a larger, sudden fare increase could result in more ridership decline.

“Let's put a plan in place right now that's steady, that's predictable, that doesn't deter ridership, that doesn't cause undue burden, but also reaches into the future,” she said.

The committee ultimately voted in favour of recommending the gradual option. The committee’s transit fare recommendation will be put before council for final approval at a later meeting.

A BC Transit report earlier this year showed ridership in Kamloops is seeing a steady post-pandemic increase, with last year’s top performing routes including those servicing Tranquille Road, Gleneagles Drive and Aberdeen.

Last year, council agreed to put a little more than $1 million toward improving bus service along a number of busy routes. In total, 8,000 more service hours — the equivalent of three extra buses — will be dedicated to restoring service levels for routes with the highest ridership. These include Route 1 (Tranquille), Route 3 (Westsyde) and Route 7 (Aberdeen).

At that time, council heard demand for transit had grown, with ridership numbers rebounding after the COVID-19 pandemic.