HSR Fare Increase, Jan 1st
Written by Danielle Lorenz

Ahh.... the good ol' days

Are you a McMaster student who has to pay for the bus? I have some bad news for you. As of January 1st 2008, there will be a fare increase. For other full-time undergraduate students this could also mean the bus pass part of our student fees will be raised next year (boo!). This will also affect students who take the bus to school during the summer months, when the bus pass no longer applies.

Fees are to go up a total of fifteen cents; from $2.25 to $2.40. Prices for strips of tickets will also be raised ten cents. A strip of tickets will now be worth $1.85 each, instead of their current $1.75; so instead of paying $8.75 for a strip, you will be paying $9.25. Of course, this means that monthly passes will also increase in price. This equates to a monthly pass being an additional eight dollars, or seventy-nine dollars.

In June fares were already increased; with a single ride rising from the price of $2.10 and monthly passes increasing six dollars from the original price of $65. A thirty cent increase is quite a rate hike.

The staff report, according to the “City staff recommend another bus fare hike” from the Spec says that Hamilton’s fares are 10-15% below the average and median fares of fourteen other large Canadian cities.

Personally, I don’t think that’s terribly relevant. I know the fares for the TTC have been steadily increasing over the last decade and it has actually resulted in fewer riders. Thus prices increased again, and riders decreased again as well. I have a feeling that this rate increase, especially if it keeps occurring every six months, will lead to an overall decrease in riders. This is something that the HSR, as well as the City of Hamilton can’t afford.

And I’d like to point out, that since the motion to raise the fares was passed on November 29th, the HSR website has done nothing so far to explain to its riders that it will cost more to ride. Nor has there been a lot of publicity on the matter. I see this as being pretty problematic, don’t you?

Some things you need to know about the fare increase that I learned today and thus aren't in the article:

• You can still use the 2007 tickets, but you have to pay an additional $0.10 when you get on the bus
• You can only use the tickets until March 31st 2008; afterwards they are no longer considered valid.