City councillors narrowly voted 8-7 to keep Calgary Transit’s free fare zone, agreeing instead to push the debate over its future to early 2027.
The vote follows Calgary Transit’s Free Fare Zone Review from May that recommended the elimination of the zone, suggesting that charging fares for rides within the zone could bring in an additional $5 million in annual revenue.
For decades, the downtown free fare zone has extended from the Downtown West/Kerby station to City Hall, and from City Hall/Bow Valley College to 7 Street station, allowing commuters to use the LRTs in the area without paying a fare.
Students & the free fare zone
This zone is crucial to students looking to access the downtown area this summer, with the UPass running out on the last active day of each semester, which for most students was April 30th—the end of the winter semester.
According to U of C’s Ancillary Services, 32,494 students used the UPass to travel to campus in the fall 2025 semester. While 30,718 students used UPass to travel to campus in the 2026 Winter semester.
As for the Spring and Summer semesters, only 11,710 students are using the UPass.
Students enrolled full-time in the spring or summer have the UPass from May to August according to ancillary services, as the program for students is "all-in" meaning students cannot opt-out of the program.
Debating transit safety
The report suggests removing the zone would reduce disorderly behaviour both on trains and on platforms in the downtown core, contributing to “improved perceptions of safety over time.”
It also suggests that the elimination of the zone “would enable transit peace officers to intervene earlier and remove disruptive riders from trains and platforms.”
“Increased presence of transit peace officers on trains and platforms would help address the increasing and complex social disorder occurring on the transit system,” the report states.
Last year, city council additionally approved a $9 million pilot project to boost both peace officer and security guard presence along the CTrain during afternoon rush hours from 4 to 8 p.m.
In the third quarter of 2026, Calgary Transit will report back to city council to measure if increased security presence has reduced crime and boosted ridership.
The Gauntlet interviewed Jeremy Klaszus, founder and editor of The Sprawl.
“That was language that came up a bunch from city administration, not that this is going to improve safety as much as this is going to improve the perception of safety.” explained Klaszus, “I think that's an important distinction and it was interesting to see that crop up.”
Conversely, a public opinion survey completed for Calgary Transit’s Free Fare Zone Review indicates that 77 per cent of people find the Free Fare Zone to be “somewhat or very useful.”
Furthermore, the report states that “85 per cent of downtown businesses feel removal of the Free Fare Zone would negatively affect their business.”
How did we get here?
In the 1950s, most Calgarians preferred the benefits of their own individual vehicles for transportation, due to low fuel prices and accessible downtown parking.
However, a consultant report from 1967 titled “Transit for Calgary’s Future” by transportation planning and engineering firm Simpson and Curtin warned of the effects of urban sprawl, arguing for the expansion of the transit system.
“Almost half the land in downtown Calgary is currently devoted to the automobile,” the 1967 report states.
“However, accelerated reliance upon the auto as the primary mode of travel will stimulate a ‘scatteration’ of urban development increasing the cost of all municipal services.”
“To insure an efficient land development pattern and an alternative to the inevitable traffic crush, public transportation must play an ever-increasing role within the total transportation pattern of the Calgary area.”
As Calgary’s population increased in the following decades, so did traffic congestion downtown.
“The last streetcar ran in 1950. And then for the next 30 years, it was just buses. So Calgarians hadn't ridden the rails for transit in 3 decades,” Klaszus explained.
The idea for a free fare zone was presented to city council in 1978, as a means of boosting business downtown, and familiarizing people with the new train service.
“The free fare zone was something that was initially introduced as a way to basically see if they could get more people to take the train,” said Klaszus.
“Part of it was also about enhancing the downtown and keeping it vibrant and lively [...] and it kind of became a part of Calgary's culture.”
The CTrain system officially opened in 1981 to great success, with ridership downtown increasing by more than 50 per cent, according to the Sprawl.
Due to its success, city council decided to keep the free fare zone, which became a perk of city life in Calgary.
While the City of Calgary had long expected Calgary Transit to cover half of its operating costs through fares, the COVID-19 pandemic led to reductions in ridership and service, which was a large hit to revenues.
In 2021, the City of Calgary announced a five-year sponsorship with TD Bank to offset the operating costs of the free fare zone.
However, three years into the agreement, TD pulled their sponsorship:
“We regularly review our sponsorship portfolio to ensure our current commitments are aligned with our evolving priorities and where we can deliver the most value.”
“After careful consideration, we made the recent decision to end our existing agreement with the City of Calgary,” said a spokesperson for TD in a statement to CBC.
Klaszus explained how this has led to the misconception that the free fare zone lost its funding.
“The reality is, the free fare zone was in existence for basically 4 decades without sponsorship, and the sponsorship was only a very recent thing.”
“It's not like it was funded through sponsorship for the duration, that was something that was very much tacked on very recently,” Klaszus explained.
Calgary Mayor Jeromy Farkas spoke to reporters ahead of the decision to push the debate.
“Absolutely everyone I speak to wants to keep the free fare zone, I would say I’ve never seen an issue like this that has unified Calgarians in my five years on council,” said Mayor Farkas.
Ward 10 Coun. Andre Chabot, who voted in favour of eliminating the free fare zone, argued that the main reason many Calgarians don’t use public transit is safety concerns.
“Right now in the free fare zone, anyone can get onto the system. There’s nothing you can do to prevent them from being there,” Chabot told Global News, “Once they’re there, how do you get them off?”
Conversely, Andrew Doudican, the Director of Urban Strategy with the Calgary Downtown Association, argued that scrapping the zone wouldn’t address the root causes of social disorder, instead displacing the issue further into the downtown core.
“Displacing those people […] and moving them off, which will put them into businesses and public areas is not addressing the greater downtown safety issue,” Doudican told the infrastructure and planning committee as reported by Global News.
“Even city hall is acknowledging this, that it's not going to solve those problems. That at best it's going to move them,” added Klaszus.
“The only thing that surprised me when I was writing about it was just seeing to what extent people are attached to [the free fare zone] in Calgary.”
“Whether they have grown up here or even if they've moved here later in life, it does seem to be something that people feel is part of the city's culture and that they want to hang on to.”
“It is something that for over 4 and a half decades has become embedded in our city's culture” Klaszus concluded.
It will ultimately be up to city council in the new year to decide whether or not the free fare zone leaves the station.
