With the final vote on the demise of Calgary’s free fare zone coming up, one Calgary city councillor said Calgary Transit should head in the opposite direction.

City councillors voted at committee in favour of killing the downtown free fare zone, putting the decision on track for a final debate and vote on May 26.  

City administration and transit officials touted the $5 million in additional revenue, and purported new tools to crack down on social disorder. They also acknowledged that while this measure may reduce social disorder on LRT lines, it would likely lead to displacement, not elimination of social disorder issues.

Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson, who opposed the removal of the downtown free fare zone, instead suggested Calgary Transit should extend the zone… to the Calgary city limits.

Atkinson said that Calgarians pay for all sorts of services through taxes, and free fares for all would be an equitable way to deliver the service to Calgarians.

“We don’t have someone have a fire in their house and then send them a bill from the fire department. You don’t have someone come from the police to help you with some theft at your property, and then get a bill from the police,” he said.  

“Why are we charging user fares for transit? We don’t charge for using our roads. We don’t have tolls on our roads. Transit is something that we want to encourage. We want as many people moving around our roads on transit instead of driving.”

Atkinson said that Calgarians are already paying for the transit system through the way it’s currently funded, via user fares. He said that the method of commuting we want Calgarians to use, is one they’re being taxed on.

“They are aggressive tax on the thing that we are trying to incentivize, which is more use of transit,” he said.

Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson said free fares extended to the city limits on all forms of transit just doesn’t make any economic sense.

“Transit is very expensive, and we’ve got to find the money to pay for it, and we need to be really responsible about what we’re pushing forward and agreeing to because it all costs money,” he said.

“It’ll all affect the mill rate or the tax base. So no, I don’t support free transit for all, because it just doesn’t make sense financially for the lack of money that the city has.”

There are free fare transit systems across North America, Europe

In Calgary, the idea of a fully free transit system seems largely far-fetched, perhaps due to the current $174 million fare-generated revenue that would be lost to the system, combined with the geographical stretch to areas where transit is used least.  

While the idea has taken root in many smaller North American cities, larger cities are also taking the leap. And it’s not just a lingering COVID-19 transit resuscitation effort either.

Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city of a million people, voted in November 2023 to make fares on their ABQ Ride bus service free, joining the 15-kilometre, 19 station ART Line, along with the Sun Van Paratransit service. In 2025, that service was delivering 200,000 rides per month.

Kansas City, Missouri, with a metro population of 2.2 million people, made transit free back in 2020. With pandemic funding ending, and no firm funding in place moving forward, however, Kansas City will once again begin to charge $2 starting June 1, 2026.

Free transit is also seen in Richmond and Alexandria, Virginia, Olympia, Washington, and Akron, Ohio. A 2022 article shows 40 US cities with some form of free transit available.

Even bigger cities like Boston and New York have some routes that are free of charge.  Detroit’s People Mover, a five-kilometre stretch of driverless light rail, had free fare through 2025, due to an ongoing sponsorship program.

(TD Bank Group ended its sponsorship of Calgary’s free fare zone early, back in late 2025).

Many more transit systems have similar programs and promotions in place to encourage ridership (Low-Income Transit Pass, event-based freebies and extended hours around events).

A full review of Kansas City’s free fare transit was done in 2022. Included in there was a statistic that showed a 39 per cent drop in security incidents, and 17 per cent decrease in the number of incidents per 100,000.

Calgary Transit, along with many city councillors, has said repeatedly in the past that adding more people to the transit system would improve both safety and the perception of safety.

Financial constraints are the biggest barrier to free transit: Report

In 2020, the International Association of Public Transport put out a policy document that examined several cities of varying sizes who implemented free fares on transit.

Predictably, ridership on most of the systems did increase with free fares being offered, largely among families with lower incomes. The document notes, however, that it had limited impact on attracting typical car commuters and instead pulled from people who walked or cycled.

The report also suggested that while the fares helped vulnerable populations, better geographical coverage and better service were seen as better way to help these user groups.

Oftentimes, free fare programs as used as a marketing tool, the report read.

Calgary city councillors heard from Carson Ackroyd at Tourism Calgary that large conventions often cite financial incentives and ease of access for attendees as a significant consideration when they decide where to hold events.

“The free fare zone functions as exactly that kind of incentive. It connects dispersed downtown hotels across Calgary to be able to get to the Telus Calgary Convention Center,” he said at last week’s meeting.

“Our hotels are not centered around convention facilities to the degree that our competitors are, and this is a key element for us, that is the real competitive advantage, and one we actively use to win business.”

Ultimately, free fares are sold as a way to drive ridership and improve equity, according to the report.

“However, FFPT (free fare public transit) is a blunt instrument to address this,” the report reads.

“More targeted measures may be both more effective and manageable within the budget limitations faced by many public authorities.”

They said better quality and service make better use of public funding.

Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot said that it becomes a challenging financial issue for Calgary to go to a full free fare.

“The system is cost about $174 million. If you were to go to a free system throughout the city, guaranteed that that would balloon to at least a half a billion dollars in operating costs annually,” Chabot said.

“I hate to think what kind of a tax increase that would represent.”