The Regional District of Nanaimo has reviewed its DayPass-on-board program in the regional district’s transit system and the results show that it has been an unexpected success.
The program was adopted in September 2017. It was a collaboration between the regional district and and BC Transit. It eliminated the traditional practice of providing paper transfer upon the payment of a fare.
Instead, customers are now given a dated paper DayPass that allows for travel throughout the calendar day when they pay twice the base fare with cash or tickets.
The regional district reviewed the program and revealed two key outcomes — it reduced operator conflict and it increased revenue. The results of the review was presented by manager of transit operations Darren Marshall at the Transit Select Committee meeting on July 12.
According to the study, prior to the implementation of the program, fare-related conflicts were a daily occurrence. Through conversations with operations staff in Nanaimo, there is an overwhleming support for the DayPass program.
In Nanaimo, staff reported that conflicts have gone down to the point of being non-existant. Informing and not enforcing, the report stated, play a significant role in successfully limiting the opportunities for conflict to occur.
Total revenue increased as well by four percent with cash revenue increasing by nine percent and monthly pass revenue by ten percent. Although increases in cash revenue were expected, the study reported that the degree to which the revenues increased was an unexpected positive benefit of the program.
The study concluded that since the DayPASS-on-board was introduced, transit users are seeing an increased value in purchasing and using a monthly pass, which helps to further increase revenue security and predictability along with increasing ridership.