Staff Report #2
February 26, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: Secondary School Student Transit Pass Pilot Program
Recommendation
The Commission CONFIRM participation in the Secondary School Student Transit Pass Pilot Program scheduled to launch in September 2025.
Background
The following report provides a chronological summary of the actions taken to date with respect to the creation of a Secondary School Student Transit Pass Pilot Program.
April 2024
At its April 23, 2024 meeting, Municipal Council passed the following motion relating to the creation of a Secondary School Student Transit Pass Pilot Program.
That the following actions be taken with respect to establishing a secondary school student transit pass pilot project:
- The Civic Administration in collaboration with the London Transit Commission BE DIRECTED to initiate the development of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB), for the purpose of partnering to deliver a pilot project to provide annual transit passes to secondary school students at Clarke Road Secondary School, including the following:
- The pilot project BE LIMITED to school years beginning in September 2024 for all Grade 9 students and September 2025 for all Grade 9 and 10 students attending Clarke Road Secondary School;
- The current post-secondary student annual pass agreements between the City of London, Western University and Fanshawe College and the current Children Under 12 Ride Free Program BE CONSIDERED as templates to establish the framework for the pilot program;
- That Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to report back to Council with the MOU, and appropriate source of financing, and metrics reporting for the pilot program.
It being noted that the TVDSB has written the Minister of Education to ask for consideration for provincial funding support for a bussing pilot. Additionally, continuing the program beyond the pilot project would require a permanent source of ongoing operating funding from a variety of sources, including reallocation of funding or funding from senior levels of government that would need to be investigated.
May 2024
At the May 29, 2024 meeting, the Commission received a report (Staff Report #6 dated May 29, 2024) which outlined a number of outstanding questions and potential issues relating to direction from Municipal Council including but not limited to:
- the lack of clear objective for the program;
- the lack of funding source beyond the period of the pilot;
- the incorrect assumptions about potential positive impacts of the program on annual Provincial Gas Tax for Transit allocations;
- the negative impacts on existing riders that could result from increased pressure on already crowded routes; and
- the proposed start date of the program
Subsequent to the Commission meeting, London Transit administration met with civic administration and TVDSB administration to discuss the identified issues and determine a path forward. The consensus reached by the parties at this meeting was that a start date of September 2024 was not achievable given the number of outstanding questions relating to the pilot program.
August 2024
At its August 27, 2024 meeting, Municipal Council passed the following motion with respect to the program:
That, on the recommendation of the Deputy City Manager, Neighbourhood and Community Wide Services,
- the report dated August 15, 2024 with respect to the Secondary School Student Transit Pass Pilot Program BE RECEIVED; and
- that the secondary school pilot project BE DEFERRED to school years beginning September 2025 and September 2026 to provide for Civic Administration, together with London Transit Commission (LTC) to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB), for the purpose of partnering to deliver a pilot project to provide annual transit passes to secondary school students at Clarke Road Secondary School for Grade 9 students in year one and Grade 9 and Grade 10 students in year two, with a report back to Council on the MOU, appropriate source of financing, and metrics as previously directed.
The report provided additional information with respect to the anticipated roles and responsibilities of each of the partners participating in the pilot project. A high level summary of the overarching responsibilities for which each party is likely to assume responsibility is set out below.
- City of London – two-year pilot program funding, and support in identification of sustainable sources of funding
- London Transit Commission – pilot program execution including operationalizing, administration, monitoring and reporting on data elements such as ridership
- Thames Valley District School Board – identification of participants, distribution of passes, participant education and training, collection of pre- and post-program data through surveys and observations, identification of sustainable sources of funding
January 2025
At the January 29, 2025 meeting, the Commission received a report detailing the status of the pilot program including estimated costs of the preferred approach to the issuance of fare media that could be integrated with the smart card system. In addition, the details of the memorandum of understanding setting out the roles and responsibilities for each of the parties in this pilot program was included, a summary of which is set out below.
The following provides a high level summary of the responsibilities of each party, with greater discussion following specific to the roles and responsibilities of London Transit.
Responsibilities of the City of London:
- Funding the two-year pilot project and executing the Funding agreement;
- Reporting to City Council on the progress of the Pilot Project;
- Cooperating with the TVDSB in identifying sustainable funding sources for the program if necessary.
Responsibilities of the TVDSB:
- Identifying program participants;
- Distributing transit passes to program participants;
- Designing and implementing evaluation activities;
- Managing communications with secondary school students, caregivers, and/or guardians on how to use the passes and the public transit system in London;
- Managing transit pass distribution and protocols for dealing with lost or damaged passes;
- Identifying sustainable funding sources for the program, if necessary.
Responsibilities of the London Transit Commission:
- Establishing a new fare category through the Smart Card system for the purpose of the pilot;
- Managing the administration and operation of the Smart Card system;
- Providing regular reporting to the City of London and TVDSB on ridership and usage of passes in this program;
- Cooperating with and supporting the TVDSB with its training and education for students, caregivers, and/or guardians on how to use the public transit system in London.
London Transit administration has worked with the smart card vendor and card suppliers to identify the costs associated with the establishment of a new fare category in the system as well as various options available that will integrate with on-board smart card readers. A quote for $27,487 has been received from the smart card vendor to make the necessary adjustments to the fare tables in the software which will allow for distinct tracking and reporting on the ridership associated with this pilot program. They have confirmed their ability to perform this work in time for a September 2025 launch; however, administration will not proceed with this initiative until Municipal Council has received and approved the final report on this initiative including the costs involved.
Given this program is limited to a specific group, administration recommended (and the other parties concurred) that the “pass” being provided to the pilot group include a photo of the pass holder. This provides LTC Operators with the ability to ensure that the passes are only being utilized by the intended recipient. In discussions with the TVDSB, it was confirmed that all students are issued a student card which includes photo id. Rather than issue a second piece of identification with a picture, the product being recommended is a sticker which includes a chip that can be read by the smart card readers. This sticker can be adhered to the back of the student card, and students will simply tap that card when they board the bus. The stickers are tamper-proof in that the chip will be damaged should the sticker be peeled off. Pricing for this product ranges between $3 and $5 per sticker, but minimum quantity for purchase is one thousand. The required chip identification numbers will be uploaded via a positive list to the smart card system and tested prior to being sent to TVDSB for application to the requisite student cards.
The costs for both the smart card reprogramming and smart card stickers will be forwarded to the City of London for inclusion in the costs associated with the pilot program, and London Transit will be reimbursed for the full cost.
Once the new fare category has been established in the smart card software, administration will be able to run reports specific to this group of riders as required in the responsibilities for London Transit in the memorandum of understanding. Once the program is in place, London Transit will provide monthly usage summaries to both the City of London and the TVDSB. Payments to London Transit from the City of London for the passes will be made on an agreed-upon basis, noting the revenue associated with the program will be reported in the month it occurred.
London Transit administration has reached out to a number of transit providers who have prepared training programs for participants in programs of this nature. This information will be compiled and shared with TVDSB administration to assist in the creation of training materials setting out the expectations for behaviour while accessing LTC services as well as the terms of use of the pass noting its intent is for the student only and cannot be shared with others.
At the January 29, 2025 meeting, the Commission directed administration to bring a report to the February 26, 2025 meeting addressing a number of outstanding concerns relating to the program including the:
- lack of clearly defined measures of success;
- pressure on already congested transit service;
- lack of baseline data; and
- list of all potential cost ramifications.
Subsequent to the January 29, 2025 meeting, administration participated in a meeting with representatives from the Thames Valley District School Board and civic administration in an effort to determine steps that could be taken to address the outstanding concerns raised by the Commission. The following provides a summary of the discussions and actions taken with respect to each issue.
Lack of Clearly Defined Measures of Success
Unfortunately the group was unable to identify any clearly defined measure of success for the pilot with the exception of the measurement of transit usage. When the proposal for the pilot program was first tabled, there was commentary with respect to expected improvements in attendance and graduation rates for students participating in the pilot, however it has been confirmed that the TVDSB will not be attempting to measure this as part of the pilot program.
The option of breaking the student group into two (those who qualify for yellow bussing and those who don’t) was presented to the group and there was consensus that this could be useful information if London Transit could work with the smart card vendor to create two distinct groups. It should be noted however that students within the school bus boundaries will continue to have access to the school bus in addition to their transit pass. Administration has reached out to the vendor to obtain an updated quotation however has not heard back at time of report writing. It was however clarified by all parties that the costs associated with this would be included in the total cost of the pilot program and would be recommended to be funded by the City of London.
The idea of spreading this pilot out to multiple schools across the city in order to gain insight into how pass usage may be impacted by varying socio-economic factors was included for consideration in the report that went to Municipal Council in August 2024, however it was not supported.
As the program stands, the only measure in place will be the ridership gathered through the smart card system. The baseline against which this will be measured will be the responses to a survey undertaken by the TVDSB regarding public transit use prior to participation in the pilot program.
Pressure on Already Congested Transit Service
The issue of the potential negative impacts to existing riders resulting from the additional riders anticipated to utilize routes serving Clarke Road Secondary School was raised with the group noting that resource limitations (equipment and labour) would preclude London Transit from being able to apply additional service to address any increased demand. Given the crowding conditions would be anticipated to occur during peak operating times, there is no availability of additional buses to be added to address demand. As set out in Staff Report #1, dated February 26, 2025, current delivery times for buses once ordered are 18 months.
In addition to potential crowding issues, experience from other transit systems with programs involving this demographic indicates that behaviour issues should be anticipated and measures should be in place to deal with them at the onset of the program. The agreement currently includes a requirement for the TVDSB to provide training to all participants of the program with respect to expected behaviour while utilizing the transit service. When issues arise on the service, LTC Inspectors are requested to attend the bus to deal with same. Should issues of this nature arise, and become a regular occurrence, the Inspector resources required to address them would take away from the other duties performed by this group of employees (service monitoring, etc.)
As the actual impacts of the pilot program will not be known until such time as it is in place, the parties agreed to the inclusion of an opt-out clause in the agreement that could be exercised by any party. LTC administration would closely monitor the routes serving Clark Road Secondary School once the pilot is underway and provide the Commission (and the parties to the agreement) with reporting on same as appropriate, which may include a recommendation to opt out of the agreement depending on the nature and extent of the issues identified.
Lack of Baseline Data
As discussed earlier in this section, the only baseline data that will be available will be the responses to the survey that will be undertaken by the TVDSB. Questions on this survey will be focused on the student’s use of public transit services prior to the launch of the pilot program.
The only other data that can be drawn upon as baseline is the current usage rates for students who purchase a youth pass. In 2024, the average rides per pass holder in the Youth category was 35 rides per month. Usage of the free passes could be measured against this however given the Youth passes that are purchased are utilized across the city and the pilot program is limited to one school, the value of this comparison in terms of measuring the pilot program success would be limited.
List of Potential Cost Ramifications
The report that will be tabled with the Strategic Priorities and Policies Committee will set out the total estimated costs of the pilot program and identify a source of funding. The report tabled in August 2024 estimated the total costs of the program at $900,000. Subsequent to that report, London Transit has identified the following cost associated with the fare media and setup required to track this group of riders for reporting purposes:
- $3,000 – $5,000 for fare media (chip-enabled sticker that will be applied to student cards)
- $27,487 for smart card system setup (noting this may increase due to the request to split the pilot into two groups, those with access to yellow bussing and those without)
- As indicated earlier in this report, the estimated fare subsidy was determined based on the cost of a monthly pass for each pilot program participant over the two year pilot period. London Transit has committed to calculating the fare subsidy based on usage with a monthly cap at the youth pass rate. Essentially, the subsidy for the rides for each participant will be charged at the Youth ticket rate ($2.12) for rides taken in the month, but the monthly subsidy for each participant will not exceed the full Youth Pass fare ($112), which equates to approximately 52 rides per month.
These costs will be included in the final project total for approval by Municipal Council noting the expectation that these costs would be covered by the City of London entirely.
As discussed earlier in this section, the potential service-related costs due to overcrowding and behavioural issues have not been included in the cost estimates given there would be no way to implement the required improvements within the period of the pilot program. Should issues of this nature occur the Commission’s only recourse would be to opt out of the program.
Next Steps
A copy of this report will be included as an appendix to the report going to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee as will reference to the action taken by the Commission with respect to participation in this pilot program.
Recommended by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager