BANFF – The Town of Banff will investigate universal free Roam transit on both local routes for visitors.
Residents already don’t pay on Banff local routes, but elected officials on Dec. 20 unanimously asked administration to return to 2025 service review with implications of Roam routes 1 and 2 becoming fare-free for all.
The report will look at ridership projections, possible funding sources and operating and capital budget impacts, among other things.
Coun. Grant Canning, a council representative on Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission (BVRTSC), said transit needs to be free, frequent and convenient to maximize ridership.
“I freely admit this will be expensive. It will require more buses, more drivers, more training, loss of existing revenues and more infrastructure like larger bus stops and possible capital improvements like expanding the Roam transit centre,” he said.
“I also understand we have multiple funding streams, like our hotel partners, which would be affected by this, but that is why I’m asking for a report to better understand all of those implications.”
Service frequency was increased for 2023 to 17 minutes on route 1 (Gondola/Banff Avenue) and 22 minutes on route 2 (Tunnel Mountain-Banff Springs Hotel) for peak hours.
Ridership reached record levels in 2023, with 1.5 million on the two Banff local routes.
Of that 1.5 million, 400,000 riders were locals who are fare-free.
“Doing fare-free for locals has been tremendously successful. Just think about the impact it’s had on removing vehicles from our streets,” said Canning.
“One of the most effective, most significant things we’ve ever done is offer free transit to locals, but we need to do more.”
Mayor Corrie DiManno said universal fare-free transit on local routes is a matter of when, not if.
“We see when we increase frequency we get more folks, and now we’ve seen when we make it free we get more folks with this 400,000 trips by Banffites,” she said.
“We need to keep feeding that behaviour that we want to see on a bigger scale with our visitors, but there are some questions that need to be answered before we get there.”
DiManno said a common theme in the What We Heard Report coming out of the Parks Canada-struck expert panel on moving people sustainably throughout Banff National Park was the use of park entry fees to help fund transit.
“I think we have some conversations we can have with our partners and I think this is not a dream, it’s a reality we need to start planning for,” she said.
Concerned about cost recovery, Coun. Hugh Pettigrew earlier in the meeting brought forward a motion requesting the two council representatives of BVRTSC bring forward a proposal to the commission for a rate increase in 2024.
Martin Bean, CEO of BVRTSC, said a fare review was recently completed and the commission chose not to increase bus fares.
“There were recommendations not to go any further with fare increases,” he said.
“It does create a potential challenge of people choosing not to use the bus, especially if there are more than one or two people travelling.”
When Pettigrew’s motion was swiftly defeated, with support coming only from Coun. Ted Christensen, he did an abrupt about-face and wanted to talk about universal fare-free on local routes.
“It seems to me we have some choices if this doesn’t go through. Either we subsidize it from somewhere else because I think the taxpayers have had a limit in my opinion” he said.
“The one that I may consider right after this if it fails is that we make fares zero. It doesn’t seem to me that we care for money so let’s make sure everyone uses it and make it free for everyone.”
Taken aback by Pettigrew’s suggestion that council doesn’t care about spending, Coun. Kaylee Ram said considering universal fare-free transit is not an immediate tax implication.
“This is reviewing future impacts on budgets and how it could be funded, whether through VPP or what cost recovery looks like and other funding sources,” she said. “We’re not committing to this; we’re looking into this.”
DiManno said public transit is not meant to be cost recovery, noting a fare increase would be a barrier for many people.
“Transit is a public service, it’s not a business,” she said.
“Transit continues to save our summers and I don’t want to put down any kind of roadblock or barrier to the success we’re seeing.”
The mayor pointed to the Outlook’s Best of the Bow, which consistently ranks Roam as the best use of taxpayer dollars in Banff.
“That, to me, speaks volumes. Roam is beloved in Banff and folks are happy for us to spend tax dollars on this service,” she said.
“They know it helps with the environment, it helps with our visitors being able to move around sustainably, and it helps with quality of life here in Banff as it relates to affordability.”
With the Town of Banff collecting about $3.8 million to $4 million every year in visitor paid parking revenues, Canning said the universal fare-free transit on Banff local routes is a great use of these dollars.
Canning said he believes the community could be better served dedicating a large chunk of the pay parking fund every year to something like fare-free transit rather than a series of smaller programs.
“Let’s leverage our shared desire for more transit initiatives by partnering with Parks Canada. The impact of this program could be massive,” he said.
Canning added transit has greatly reduced congestion and hopes transit ridership on routes 1 and 2 could be doubled or tripled.
“What would the impact be on Mountain Avenue and the Banff Avenue bridge if every day thousands more took transit to Sulphur Mountain?” he said.
“What would the impact on Lynx and Beaver Street be if every day thousands more took transit and never got behind the wheel of their vehicle when they arrive in town?”
In the end, Christensen supported looking at the implications of fare-free transit, calling it “bold and forward-thinking.”
However, combined with that, he said there is a need to regulate or restrict the number of vehicles in town.
“If we don’t do that we will have thousands more people, plus vehicles,” he said.
