Calgarians will pay more to ride the bus and CTrain starting in January, with single fares set to rise to $4 — a price that keeps the city among the more expensive transit systems in Canada for individual tickets. The current fare is $3.80.
The increase pushes Calgary’s single-ride cost above those in cities like Edmonton, Winnipeg and Toronto, and just below the highest-priced systems in the country. Monthly passes will also climb, moving from $118 to $126. While that still places Calgary below Toronto’s $156 monthly pass, it marks another bump at a time when riders say service quality continues to lag behind demand.
“It hits people’s budgets,” said Alex Williams, chair of the Calgary Transit Riders advocacy group. “A fare hike affects not just your wallet, but the choices you make about your time and energy.”
Frequent rider Allan Thacker said the price of regular travel already felt steep and that the increase will “make getting around substantially more expensive.” Even small jumps add up, he noted: “One ticket isn’t much, but buy a pack of 10 and suddenly that’s $40.”
Concerns about service and value
The fare hike passed despite ongoing concerns from riders and councillors about reliability, safety and system reach. Former councillor Jeromy Farkas said the message from residents has been consistent: service needs to improve.
Ward 9 Coun. Harrison Clark also questioned the timing, noting that council had just finished lowering the property tax burden for many homeowners. “And then the next thing we did was raise the cost to take the bus,” he said on CBC’s Calgary Eyeopener.
Clark and Farkas both said they expect to see improvements tied directly to the additional revenue. Council approved $6 million this week for service enhancements and another $9 million for safety initiatives amid rising concerns about violence on the system.
In a statement, Calgary Transit said the new funding will allow for adjustments to frequency and span of service across the city, though specific route changes have not yet been finalized.
A sprawling city, stretched resources
Advocates and city officials alike point to Calgary’s geography as a challenge. With neighbourhoods spread widely across the metropolitan area, delivering frequent, reliable service becomes more costly than in denser cities.
“Our dollar doesn’t go as far when you’re trying to cover such a large footprint,” Williams said.
Calgary Transit’s long-term plan, the Route Ahead strategy, envisions buses every 10 minutes for most of the day on primary routes. Williams said reality is far from that standard. Director Sharon Fleming told council during budget discussions that achieving the 10-minute network would require about $150 million over the next decade. Another $150 million would be needed to guarantee 30-minute service in more remote neighbourhoods.
That balancing act — supporting dense corridors without abandoning outer communities — continues to shape Calgary’s transit dilemmas. Williams cautioned against adopting models used in cities like Montreal, where riders in farther-flung zones pay more. “That kind of tiered pricing would create more inequity,” he said.
Express routes on the chopping block
Compounding frustration for some commuters, Calgary Transit is phasing out the remainder of its express routes — buses that run directly to and from downtown during peak hours. Eight routes will disappear over the next two years, including 62, 64, 70, 109, 116, 117, 131, 142 and 151.
The agency said the express buses are expensive to operate and represent an inefficient use of resources compared with regular routes. The No. 70 will be the first to go, ending on Dec. 22.
Hesam Ghadirijavan, who launched a petition to preserve the route, said the alternative adds more than two hours per day to his commute. For many working families, he said, that’s unmanageable.
Williams said his group has heard widespread concern from riders about the cancellations. Commute times will grow longer for many who relied on the express network. “Transit is not a luxury,” he said. “It’s essential infrastructure.”
He has invited city councillors to ride with his group during winter months to experience the system the way daily users do.
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