The future of Calgary’s downtown free fare zone will be under examination should an upcoming Notice of Motion move ahead next week.

A Notice of Motion titled “Review and Reform of the Downtown Calgary Transit Free Fare Zone” will come to city council’s Executive Committee on Feb. 3 for technical review.

It calls for a “comprehensive review” of the downtown free fare zone, with a look at the operational, financial, ridership and safety impacts of reforming the zone, which stretches along 7 Avenue S from the City Hall / Bow Valley College station to the Downtown West / Kerby Station.

The motion also calls for engagement with city partners, riders and to measure the financial impacts of its removal, plus possible alternatives.

Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule, one of the sponsors of the motion, along with Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos, said that after the elimination of the downtown free fare zone was defeated during budget deliberations last November, there was a desire to have more information.

At that time, Calgary Transit had already begun to survey riders for their thoughts on the free fare zone.

“The free fare zone has been around forever. Even before the LRT, we had a bus that was a free fare zone downtown,” Yule said.

“It’s a legacy, and we’re a new council, brand new, 10 new councillors. We’re looking under every rock, is everything working the way it should.”

When it was discussed during budget deliberations, Calgary city councillors heard that  Calgary Transit estimated that six million trips start and end in the free fare zone.

“We then estimated the fares, and then we took a 25 per cent figure of that to address elasticity, because we do believe less people will take transit,” Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming said at that time.  

“They will choose to walk. They will choose to forego the trip altogether, maybe take a Teams call whatever that is.”

Hop on, hop off is attractive: CDA executive director

Mark Garner, executive director of the Calgary Downtown Association, said that when he looks at downtown usage, particularly during the day, there’s a lot of business use, with people moving quickly from one location to another.

“One of the best things about downtown is this hop on, hop off, opportunity you have,” he said.

“We manage 102 blocks in the downtown, and sometimes I’m at city hall, and then I have to go all the way over to Cowboys, or another part of the downtown, and I can do that.”

Garner also said that as Calgary’s downtown strategy continues to unfold, the ability to move quickly between the different activations was also important to improving the vibrancy in the area.

“When people come here, you can park your car. It’s a very walkable city, but transit is that other option, and having that accessibility, you hear me say a lot, that accessibility is economics,” he said.

Garner said he’s often thought that the free fare zone could be extended. When he considered the number of people at this year’s Rotary convention, only one stop away from the downtown free fare zone could bring more people into the area, instead of paying the soon-to-be $4 to move through the area.

There could be a middle ground, Garner said. He recognizes that there are potential social disorder and safety advantages in eliminating the free fare zone. A zone-based fare system could be a way to balance imposing larger user fees on those who use more of the system (coming from end of line into downtown) versus those jumping just one or two stops.

Yule said that it may come down to running a pilot project to gather even more information on how effective the free fare zone elimination might be. It might even include testing fare zones.

“We just wanted a healthy discussion around recommendations for the free fare zone, as well as the recommendations for the fare strategy. Do we have fare zones?” Yule said.

“We wanted to kick up the can here when it comes to our transit system, just a more robust look at the free fare zone, as they are doing the work with the fare strategy.”

Late in 2025, TD Bank Group ended its sponsorship of the downtown free fare zone prematurely.

If this motion is approved on technical merit, it would advance to a future full meeting of Calgary city council for debate and potential approval.