The day after hiking upcoming Calgary Transit fares, city council offered a commuter olive branch with added base service investment for 2026.

While the final Calgary budget hasn’t yet been approved, councillors voted in favour of an amendment adding $1 million in Primary Transit Network service, and $5 million to base service.

Primary Transit Network (PTN) is the Route Ahead suggested 10 to 15 minutes service, 15 hours a day, seven days a week. The base transit service would be the level of service in various areas of Calgary that feeds the (PTN).

On Monday, councillors voted in favour of hiking Calgary Transit single-ride fares to $4, up from the current $3.80. The argument made by some was that hopefully the added revenue would help fund more frequency, more service and better safety.

The fare increase was expected to add $4 million to the Calgary Transit budget, and with this $6 million increase to expenses, it’s a net additional spend of $2 million.

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, who put the amendment forward, said that there’s been a lack of operating and capital expenditures for Calgary Transit in relation to the goals set out in the updated Route Ahead plan.

“Yesterday, we had an increase that, while I’m not a fan of the 10-cent increase, it does give us an opportunity to pay for some of these improvements,” he said.

Atkinson said that it wasn’t necessarily just a Ward 7 issue; his ward is amply serviced by the Primary Transit Network. This is about feeding that system from all Calgary neighbourhoods.

“By actually allocating it specifically to base and local network, you’re actually focusing it on some of those areas where we’re really seeing a need outside the inner city,” he said.

Fair trade: Service for the added cost

According to Calgary Transit, based on their current priority service list, the following routes would likely be impacted by the added investment, if the budget is approved: 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 79, 80, 108, 115, 118, 194.

Routes 57, 59, 61, 115 and 118 will have added service in the a.m. and p.m. peak periods. Route 108 will have the same, plus, it will be extended west into Cresmont.

Route 63 will add midday and evening service. Route 65 will add weekend and evening service. Route 79 and 80 will get new weekday and late evening service. Finally, Route 194 will get new weekend service.

“While we have a long way to go, this helps us chip away at the service gap, the funding gap, and specifically in the case of the Crestmont extension, the network gap,” said Ryan Murray with Calgary Transit.

Ward 4 Coun. DJ Kelly, who voted in favour of the increase to transit fares, said for him it was important to get more money into Calgary Transit.

“Those two had to work together. The only way that increasing fares made any sense is if we were seeing an improvement in the transit service,” he said.

“The $6 million together, the primary benefit of that is maximizing the bus fleet that we currently have. So, by doing that, we now can say definitively that our entire bus network is at capacity.”

Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming, when she answered questions from councillors earlier in the budget deliberations, said that it would take this amount of cash to use the current fleet capacity.

Ward 1 Coun. Kim Tyers, who expressed frustration at the phasing out of express bus routes, including one in her ward, said this was a fair investment. She didn’t vote in favour of the fare increase, however.

“I don’t think that we needed to increase transit fares in a time where we have an affordability crisis,” she said.

“It did pass, and what I hope Calgarians will see is that we’re investing in transit, therefore it’s going to be a better service, more frequency, it’s going to be safer.”