Prince Rupert Council to explore options with BC Transit fare increase planned for Port Edward service

The cost of riding the bus to and from Port Edward is about to go up and as it does, BC Transit is looking to the City of Prince Rupert for some guidance no how it wishes to proceed in such areas as transferability between the two transit services.

The District of Port Edward recently passed a change to their fare structure which increases the one way fare to 3.00 for Zone 2 of the Port Edward service and to $4.00 for Zone three which travels to the North Pacific Cannery Historical Site.

Change is coming for bus riders on Port Edward Transit
with an increase in fares planned for May 

As part of their consultation, BC Transit is proposing two options for Prince Rupert City Council to consider. Their recommendations were included as part of a report from Paul Venditelli, the Manager of Transportation and Economic Development for the City of Prince Rupert.

From his review of the BC Transit notes, Mr. Venditelli has outlined his observations related to the two options that have been presented to Council.

1) permit transferability at no extra charge to riders coming into Prince Rupert on the Route #60 bus, or 2) require inbound riders to pay the Prince Rupert rate if transferring from Route #60 to a Prince Rupert route.

The Manger of Transportation further expands on the impact to the city and what actions would be required of City Council to move forward on the topic:

Option 1), albeit low, will mean an opportunity cost to earn additional revenue for the City. Currently the City doesn't collect on inbound passengers transferring from Port Edward to a Prince Rupert route so there is no financial loss expected under Option 1). 

The financial opportunity cost of continuing transferability could be tracked if Council chose this option as an interim measure for 1 year. This would provide information to Council as to whether to proceed with Option 1 in the future.

Option 2) would mean the City would charge a rider from Port Edward for riding within Prince Rupert. This requires additional costs to Port Edward riders and more management of various fare products at transit outlets.

Council will be asked to provide direction to staff tonight as to which path they wish to follow on the Transportation options.

The timeline for the change in fees for the Port Edward service will be May of this year, with BC Transit hoping for feedback as to the city's intentions prior to that launch date.

You can review the full report from BC Transit as part of the City's Agenda package here starting at page 18.

For more items of interest related to this evening's City Council session see our Preview page here.

More background on City Council Discussion themes see our Council Discussion page here.

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