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High-school students could get free pass with transit fares

'I believe this is a good opportunity for the kids, for the community, for the school board, and for the City of Barrie,' says councillor
2018-05-22 Downtown bus RB
A Barrie Transit bus is shown in a file photo. Raymond Bowe/BarrieToday

City councillors are batting around the idea of providing free transit to local high-school students. 

At last night's general committee meeting, councillors gave initial approval to a motion asking city staff, in conjunction with local school boards, to look into the feasibility of free bus service for secondary students until Dec. 31.

The Simcoe County Student Transportation Consortium handles busing for the boards. 

Free bus service would be provided within one hour following the end of school, between 12:30 p.m. and 4 p.m., and at bus stops adjacent to the city's secondary schools.

The move, which still requires final approval from city council, would also require the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit to remove passenger capacity limits on Barrie buses due to COVID-19.

Committee members also asked city staff to investigate free bus service for high-school students in the long-term beyond this year. 

Brent Forsyth, the city's transit director, said a lot would depend on how many students use free service. 

"High schools have a 1,000-plus students and if our bus capacities are at 50 to 50-plus, the capacity will run out pretty quick" if a lot of students take advantage of the service, he said Monday night.

"Unfortunately, there is not a lot of flexibility to add additional service," Forsyth added. "It requires a lot more buses at that peak service of the day, which would probably require a much larger investment and would take us time to get additional fleet."

Coun. Mike McCann, who placed the item on the agenda for discussion, said free transit for students could have environmental benefits while also being more convenient for students who are sometimes left "stranded" at school due to a lack of buses

"I believe this is a good opportunity for the kids, for the community, for the school board, and for the City of Barrie," he added, "because it takes some of the transportation issues that the school board has and we can present ourselves to be a solution to that stress."

The Ward 10 councillor says it's also a chance to gauge how transit service is used by students. 

"We are in the business of moving people from 'A' to 'B'," McCann said. "I never thought or discussed (with city staff) that this would be a freebie for life. If it's a success and we want to continue it, I think it would be an easy discussion to continue it in the new year."

After speaking to Forsyth, McCann said what they don't want to do is "bombard" city buses with high-school students, because residents still need the service to get to and from work.

Coun. Keenan Aylwin said free service could be part of a bigger discussion on ways to enhance McCann's plan. It was Aylwin's amendment to the motion that called for city staff to look into free bus service for students beyond just this calendar year. 

"We know that investment in transit, per dollar, has a huge impact on our economy and that's something we desperately need right now," Aylwin said. 

For the last year and a half, Service Barrie executive director Rebecca James-Reid said the city has been in talks with local school boards about field-trip passes as well as a pilot program for sports teams to access Barrie Transit.

She expects a report to come back as soon as possible, given the tight timeline, possibly within the next few weeks.


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Raymond Bowe

About the Author: Raymond Bowe

Raymond is an award-winning journalist who has been reporting from Simcoe County since 2000
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