LRT fare evaders will soon face penalties, region says

Transit riders who try to skip out on paying the fare to ride the ION LRT will soon be penalized, the Region of Waterloo says.

So far, officials have only issued warnings to people who haven't paid, but they will soon begin to do so, putting an end to a grace period that began when the service launched on June 21.

"That [grace period] absolutely will be ending very shortly," Peter Zinck, director of transit services for the Region of Waterloo told CBC Kitchener-Waterloo.

• More than 73K rides taken ION LRT in opening weekend, region says

"We've had teams of fare inspectors staff on trains all week," he said. "Educating people, indicating to them the consequences of not paying a fare."

Changes in ridership

According to Zinck, the LRT'sridership went down in the week of July 2its first week of paid service .

"We did see a decrease in boarding from the period of the free fare to the charge period," he said. Now, the LRT is at roughly half the ridership they were at during the free fare period.

But the region says the numbers don't necessarily spell bad news for overall ridership.

• Nearly 300K rode LRT in first 11 days, region says

Looking at the week of July 2 and comparing that to the same period last year, officials say Grand River Transit actually saw more riders across the board. They saw system-wide boardings increase by 62,000, or 14 per cent.

The region's central transit corridor, which now includesthe ION LRT, also saw 25,000more riders, or a 26 per cent increase,compared to the same time last year.

Since people have had to start paying, the region says the LRTsees anywhere between 14,000 and 15,000 boardings on the ION trainseach weekday.

"It's a new technology [and] new routes, so we need a longer period of time to assess how it's going," Zinck said. "But we're off to an excellent start."