Brampton Residents May Be Eligible for Discounted Bus Fare
Published March 1, 2018 at 3:36 am
If you’re a Brampton Transit rider who sometimes struggles to make ends meet, you may soon be able to catch a break on fares.
If you’re a Brampton Transit rider who sometimes struggles to make ends meet, you may soon be able to catch a break on fares.
On February 28, 2018, Brampton city council approved the Peel Affordable Transportation Program (ATP) – Brampton, which will allow low-income residents in Brampton to purchase a monthly PRESTO pass at a 50 per cent discount as of May 1, 2018.
Adult monthly PRESTO passes are currently $124, while senior passes are $52. As of May 1, those passes will be $62 and $26 for eligible residents, respectively.
How will residents know if they’re eligible for the discount?
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There will be an online application process through a portal where residents will have to meet low-income measures to be eligible for the major discount, which will launch in the spring.
The ATP is already running in Mississauga on MiWay, where it has seen success, so this isn’t just a pilot program. The ATP in Brampton will remain permanently.
The program is a partnership between the Region of Peel and Brampton Transit.
The Region is set to provide a 50 per cent subsidy to the City to cover costs, resulting in a net zero revenue loss for Brampton, according to recent council documents.
Brampton is paying the Region a one-time fee of $85,000 to support the development of an online portal to store resident information once the program launches.
The ATP is part of Peel’s Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to the United Way of Peel Region, for the first time ever, more than half of Peel’s neighbourhoods are considered low-income – in 1980, it was 2 per cent, and as of 2015, it’s 52 per cent – so this program might help a lot of people in Brampton.
Happy riding!
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