June 7, 2024
Last December, we celebrated that SCARP student Chris French (alongside two of his peers) each won funding by the Fondation J. Armaund Bombardier's Sustainable Transportation fellowship for compelling research projects. The report is officially a product of Leading Mobility Consulting, who calls the report French authored "the first national comprehensive report on transit operating funding".
French, now a SCARP alum, is excited to share that his award-winning report, which he also wrote for his SCARP capstone, has been released to the public!
The report is available online, and already several news outlets have picked up this story for its insights into the challenging world of public transit planning.
Chris French, SCARP MCRP graduate, 2023
Co-authoring a report while working for Leading Mobility Consulting
and as his capstone research for his MCRP degree
"This is the End of the Line:
Reconstructing Transit Operating Funding in Canada"
This report challenges the status quo for how municipalities pay for transit service, and how it needs to change. Transit agencies across the country are facing a fiscal cliff that is affecting their ability to maintain existing - let alone expand - service for the millions of Canadians that rely on public transit every single day.
This report delivers nine broad policy recommendations as they relate to transit operating funding across the country. It also explores three new revenue tools per city that could be used to fund transit operations, and how they could impact mode share, equity, municipal or regional objectives, as well as relative risk and considerations for implementation in the unique contexts of eight major Canadian cities. The role and need for operating funding support from Provincial and Federal governments is also discussed.
More details about the report and its significance
Stories in the news about it:
Chris French nowadays works at TransLink as an Area Transport Planner, and is a member of the Canadian Urban Transit Association's Young and Emerging Leaders Subcommittee.