City eyes $32M in surplus money for Calgary Transit recovery
Global News
Calgary Transit also announced improved lighting at its downtown CTrain stations as part of ongoing initiatives to improve safety on the network.
As the ridership continues to rebound on Calgary Transit, a city committee has endorsed investing surplus money to help ramp up services levels and cover revenue losses.
As part of a discussion on service investment and improvement Wednesday, the city’s executive committee voted in favour allowing Calgary Transit to access up to $32 million from the fiscal stability and operating budget savings account to offset pandemic revenue losses and continue recovery spending.
The move still needs to go to city council for final approval.
“In order to provide the quality of service that Calgarians expect, we’ve got to make sure that we’re properly funding public transit,” Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said.
According to Calgary Transit, this year’s revenue shortfall is anticipated to be between $40-50 million dollars, but is expected to improve.
A loss of ridership in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to a revenue shortfall of $93 million, which grew to $106 million in 2021.
The transit service reported a $67 million revenue loss in 2022.
Previously, the revenue losses were offset by matching emergency relief funding between the federal and provincial governments; however, similar funding isn’t expected again this year.