Meeting held to discuss high school bus pass program, London Transit absent [Video]

A proposed partnership to evaluate the impact of providing high school students free bus passes got off to a rocky start when one of the agencies didn’t attend a meeting at city hall.

On Tuesday, council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee (SPPC) spent two hours discussing a motion directing city staff to develop a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) and London Transit Commission (LTC) for a two-year pilot project investigating the impact of providing free bus passes to high school students in London.

The motion by Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis and Coun. Peter Cuddy would begin with grade nine students at Clarke Road Secondary School this September and expand to grades nine and 10 in September 2025.

“What we do have right now is a gap,” explained Lewis. “Kids under 12 ride free, [there’s] a deeply subsidized pass for post-secondary students, and we leave the high school students in the …