Sudbury considers providing free transit for high school students

A resolution passed Monday in Sudbury directs city staff to prepare a report on providing free GOVA bus service to secondary school students in the city. (File)

A resolution passed Monday in Sudbury directs city staff to prepare a report on providing free bus service to secondary school students in the city.

The motion from Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent said the idea is based on Kingston, which has provided free transportation for high school students since implementing a pilot project in 2017.

The city and the school boards in Kingston share the cost of the program.

Kingston offers a program to teach Grade 9 students how to navigate that city’s transit system. Similar training has been held in Sudbury for the GOVA system, Parent’s motion said.

“The Sudbury Catholic District School Board’s Student Senate, in collaboration with the City of Greater Sudbury, initiated a GOVA bus awareness campaign to promote the use of public transportation and educate students about how to effectively and safely navigate the GOVA Transit system,” the motion said.

“The training was very successful in providing students with information on routes and schedules, fares and passes, bike rack usage, accessibility, safety and security and bus etiquette.”

When the program rolled out in Kingston, secondary school ridership increased from about 30,000 a year to more than 600,000.

However, a similar plan that was to be rolled out in London, Ont., was delayed.

London launch delayed

Concerns in London included the impact on riders who pay full fares and the ability of the system to suddenly absorb an influx of riders.

When the plan was implemented in Kingston, ridership was at an all-time low.

“The program was launched under the pretence that the service in operation had significant capacity, so additional ridership generated from the program would potentially fill empty buses, but not be such that additional service hours would be required,” said a report on the idea from city staff in London.

“While the program has been successful in increasing ridership, the limited transportation revenue that is collected from the paying riders places increased reliance on the municipality for funding of any growth in services.”

Parent’s motion will have Sudbury city staff complete a similar analysis on the impact free student ridership would have, and contact school boards to find out if they are interested in partnering with the city on such a program.

Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer supported the motion. He said he looked into a similar idea a few years ago that would see local transit partially replace school buses.

“This is a good step to start,” Sizer said, adding a lot of research would be needed.

But he said it could reduce the number of days students miss school because of bad weather.

“We very, very seldom pull the buses of the road,” Sizer said.

And with school buses, he said if a student misses their bus “they don’t go to school.”

Increase in gas tax revenue

But if they are taking GOVA, they can just get on the next bus.

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City transit director Brendan Adair said that increasing ridership this way would also increase the city’s share of gas tax funding.

“Yes, any increase in ridership has an associated increase with the gas tax (funding),” Adair said.

It could also increase the city’s costs if a boost in ridership requires an increase in routes or route frequency, he said.

Adair said the report would consider “best case scenarios” and staff would consult with municipalities that have similar programs to determine best practices.

The report will “consider the impact of 7,300 additional students on the routes during the day,” he said.

The staff report on the proposal is due in the first quarter of 2025.