End of the road for OC Transpo youth passes, teens now pay $135 a month for transit pass

End of the road for OC Transpo youth passes

Ottawa teenagers are now paying an adult fare to board OC Transpo buses and the O-Train, as OC Transpo scraps youth monthly transit fares.

Council voted to scrap the $104 a month youth transit pass as part of a plan to boost revenue to address a $120 million deficit in the 2025 transit budget.

As of Sept. 1, youth ages 11 to 19 must pay the adult monthly transit pass fare of $135. OC Transpo offers a pre-teen fare for 11- and 12-year-olds at $2 per ride.

“Customers who currently have a Youth concession set on their Presto card will be charged an Adult monthly pass on September 1,” Troy Charter, acting general manager at OC Transpo, said in a memo to Council on July 31.

“This change is part of the 2025 fare change approved by City Council as part of the 2025 budget.”

OC Transpo says approximately 1,700 customers a month purchased the Youth transit pass from OC Transpo in the January to June period. School boards purchased an average of 19,100 Youth passes a month for students eligible to receive the student pass.

Children ages 10 and under can still ride OC Transpo for free in Ottawa. The 2025 budget scrapped free transit for 11- and 12-year-olds.

OC Transpo notes full-time students at Algonquin College, Carleton University, Saint Paul University, and the University of Ottawa receive a U-Pass as part of their tuition, valid throughout the school term.

Youth transit riders in Ottawa are paying the highest fares for a monthly pass in Canada.

In Gatineau, the cost of a monthly transit pass for 13- to 20-year-olds is $69 a month, while Kingston Transit offers a transit pass of $61.75 a month for 15- to 24-year-olds.

The Toronto Transit Commission offers a monthly transit pass for 13- to 19-year-olds at $128.15 a month, while Brampton Transit offers a pass for $118 a month for 13–19-year-olds and a monthly pass of $84 a month for 6- to 12-year-olds.

The $30 a month hike for youth buying transit passes comes as OC Transpo projects a $46 million deficit this year, due to lower ridership and no funding from the upper levels of government.