The free fare zone in downtown Calgary will remain in place for now, after city council voted to defer a decision on its future until next year.
After a lengthy debate Tuesday evening, city council voted 9-6 in favour of a heavily amended recommendation to defer deciding on whether to keep or remove the free fare zone until a discussion on Calgary Transit’s updated fare strategy in early 2027.
Councillors Rob Ward, DJ Kelly, Myke Atkinson, Raj Dhaliwal, Harrison Clark, and Mayor Jeromy Farkas voted against the move.
“My preference on the free fare zone would’ve been to make a decision one way or another either to keep it or to scrap it,” Farkas told reporters Wednesday. “I think the uncertainty is going to be a big issue for us.”
It comes after city administration recommended ending the free fare zone after Calgary Transit conducted a review of the zone late last year.
The free fare zone, which runs the length of 7 Avenue in the downtown core, has allowed for riders to use the CTrain free of charge since 1981.
Transit advocates said they’re glad the service will remain in place for now, but remain concerned the zone will still be eliminated after the deferral.
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“It does feel like this council is a little bit indecisive about how we’re going to manage our transit service,” said Alex Williams with the Calgary Transit Riders group.
According to city administration, the recommendation to scrap the free fare zone was driven by the need to “improve safety for customers.”
The move was expected to generate an additional $5 million in fare revenue per year, which transit officials said could be reinvested into furthering improvements in transit safety.
“The majority of social disorder on the CTrain starts down at the free fare zone,” said Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos. “The right approach is get the data, consolidate it into the fare strategy, and then we can decide what we want to do with the free fare zone.”
The elimination of the zone would give transit peace officers the lawful authority to remove disruptive riders, address loitering and intervene before issues escalate, a city report into the issue said.
Williams said he is “not buying” the argument that scrapping the free fare zone would improve safety.
“It’s not going to make the safety issue go overnight,” he said. “It’s going to be an excuse to harass and bother people who might literally just be walking on the sidewalk.”
According to Andrew Doudican with the Calgary Downtown Association, the free fare zone isn’t a “catalyst for social disorder” in the downtown core.
“It does experience symptoms of what exists in our downtown core, we do have safety issues we need to address,” he told Global News. “I think that’s being addressed currently by Mayor Farkas to introduce a downtown police station.”
That motion, co-signed by several councillors, was given the green light by city council Tuesday.
City administration will now work with the Calgary Police Service to conduct a feasibility study on bringing back a police station to the downtown core, as well as review options for facilities in the core, including city-owned or city-leased properties “suitable for adaptive reuse, new construction, and public/private partnership models.”
Farkas told reporters Wednesday he didn’t believe the station would be the “silver bullet” to solving downtown safety issues.
“It’s not the be all and end all,” he said. “But this is one way we can have a more visible presence on a 24/7 basis.”
Calgary Police Chief Katie McLellan said the service is open to discussions with the City of Calgary on a downtown station, after the previous station in the core was removed in 2017.
However, the Calgary Police Commission warned a downtown station and its resourcing would require additional funding from city council, which isn’t currently in the police service’s request for the upcoming four-year budget.
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