Transit

The topic of transit recently came up and I will share my thoughts about it.

As anyone who has followed my page, you’ll be aware I’ve spoken at length about various transit issues. Instead of rehashing some of that, I will offer some new thoughts.

Transit is a vital part of a healthy community. It allows residents to live their lives without the financial burden of private vehicle ownership. It gives independence to those who may not be able to drive for health reasons, disabilities or teens who aren’t of driving age.

Full disclosure: I do not rely on Orangeville transit. I will first opt for my bicycle or my two feet for errands in town, however, I recognize it’s importance.

Fare free transit

Our fare free pilot is set to end in the next term of council, which I hope to be a part of. The final date given by the Town is July 21, 2027. It will likely be brought up as a council agenda item before that date.

I am in favour of fare free transit. It helps those who need the most help.

A common criticism I hear surrounding the fare free system is “It’s a waste of money”. I’ll try to break down the numbers for it as best I can.

The Province of Ontario provides municipalities with funding from the gas tax. The Province also stipulates the funding must be used for transit-related initiatives. The idea originally behind offering the fare free system was to create a positive feedback loop. The amount of funding received is tied into ridership. If ridership increases, Orangeville gets more funding. If we offer fare-free rides, we increase ridership and get more funding.

That positive feedback loop proved to be successful as ridership greatly increased and the funding increased along with it.

Now for the numbers.

The last rebate from the Province was $294,473. Our latest data available for ridership was 188,700. In 2019, which is the baseline the Town uses as it’s the last year before both COVID and fare free, the ridership was 102,898. That same year, the revenue collected appx $143,000.

Some “back of the napkin” math shows we roughly doubled ridership between 2025 and 2019, and if we also doubled our revenue, we’d be right at where the Province is funding us. However, it should be noted there’s also a cost associated with fares. A town report estimates between $60k and $80k for “administer fares, initiate touch free pay systems, security and other fees”. That puts the Town ahead of where we would be if we collected fares.

However, our latest ridership numbers did drop 23% between 2024 and 2025. September 2025 is when new routes came into effect. I am concerned with how this drop in ridership will factor in to the eventual gas tax funding from the Province.

I believe in the fare free system but for it to be viable, we need to ensure our ridership numbers don’t decrease.

The Town recently announced new bus stops in the Veteran’s Way community along with new buses. I don’t see mention of major route changes or adding a third route. I hope (though hope is not a plan) there will be an announcement for routes soon.

In my opinion, the ridership decline is due to the September 2025 route structure, not because of the buses. Sure, having nicer buses is a bonus, but if they aren’t on time and reaching areas where people need to be, the fanciest of bus won’t solve the ridership decline.

Orangeville is at an awkward stage for transit. We’re too big to not have a transit system but too small to have a robust system.

Thank you for reading.