The civic works and operations committee has asked the provincial government to legislate a gasoline tax to provide revenue for Winnipeg Transit.
The committee yesterday approved a motion from Coun. Frank Johnson who suggested the one-cent-per-litre tax on gasoline.
The tax would provide revenue to be "applied directly to subsidizing the public transit system in Winnipeg," said Johnson (Ind.—Memorial).
Winnipeg Transit should be considered an energy-saving device, Johnson said. "I don't agree with raising the fares. If you do that you just discourage ridership."
However, the committee approved fare incrases to 20 cents from 10 cents for senior citizens and blind persons; children and students would pay 25 cents instead of 15 cents, and monthly bus passes would rise to $20 from $14.
An increase in adult fares to 60 cents from 40 cents was passed on to executive policy committee without recommendations, after a tie vote.
Rick Borland, director of transit, told the committee that with every three-per-cent increase in adult bus fare, a one-per-cent drop in ridership can be expected.
He said that for every six-per-cent increase in fares for children and students, a one-per-cent short-term drop in riders can also be expected.
In recommending the tentative fare increases, city officials were keeping in mind a council policy that transit fares reflect 50 per cent of costs, Borland said.
If the fares are left as they are in the 1981 budget, they will cover only 30 per cent of costs, he said.
Bus fares were last increased May 1, 1979. The 1981 current estimates call for a $24.4-million transit deficit as part of its $44.8-million budget.
"Anything we finally agree on will have a cause and effect on the mill rate," warned works and operations committee chairman John Angus (ICEC—University).
Meanwhile, a recommendation from transit officials that 10-cent DASH bus fares be eliminated and service restricted from 11 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. effective June 22, also received approval from the committee.
A report prepared by transit officials says although the DASH system has helped reduce travel by auto downtown, increased mobility in the area at off-peak times and reduced requirement for parking "the ridership levels of the past two years have been less than desired."
DASH ridership reached a high of 6,000 per day in late 1975, but dropped to a low of about 1,300 in August 1979, and has levelled out at about 2,000 per day recently.
A decision in May 1978, to charge 10 cents per ride on the DASH service resulted in a 45-per-cent reduction in riders.
"The elimination of the 10-cent fare would undoubtedly result in a very substantial ridership increase," says the report.
Works and operations commissioner Bill Finnbogason told the meeting the city is in the process of applying for reallocation of federal Urban Transportation Assistance Funds (UTAP) to help pay for 28 new transit buses.
If UTAP funds originally allocated for the Sherbrook-McGregor overpass project, recently quashed by city council, were turned over to transit, the city would pay between $600,000 and $700,000 of its $1,456,000 original share of the cost of the new buses, Finnbogason said.