Surrey mayoral candidate pitches City-funded $70 monthly TransLink transit pass | Daily Hive

Surrey mayoral candidate promises City-funded discounted $70 monthly TransLink public transit pass

R1 King George Boulevard RapidBus stop at SkyTrain's Surrey Central Station. (Kenneth Chan)

If elected, mayoral candidate Mike Starchuk and his Imagine Surrey party would pursue creating a discounted one-zone monthly TransLink public transit pass for Surrey residents, with the City of Surrey covering the remaining cost.

The proposed discounted monthly pass enabling unlimited trips within one zone would be about 40 per cent below TransLink’s current adult one-zone monthly fare of $117.20, as of July 2026. A passenger buying the pass every month would save $47.20 monthly or $566.40 annually. For two adults, the combined annual savings would reach $1,132.80.

TransLink’s one-zone monthly pass offers unlimited bus trips anywhere in Metro Vancouver, but SkyTrain and SeaBus services are under the region’s three-zone system on weekdays before mid-evening. Passengers holding such a pass travelling on SkyTrain and SeaBus would have to add to their fare for such trips.

Under the proposal, the subsidized pass would be loaded onto a passenger’s existing Compass Card. Residents would verify once a year that they live in Surrey through the party’s proposed “SurreyPass.”

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Imagine Surrey previously described their SurreyPass concept as a single physical or digital card intended to bring together access to municipal services, including recreation, libraries and pay parking.

The party notes that the public transit pass subsidy could operate through an existing TransLink program for sponsored passes, and asserts that getting the program started for Surrey residents would not require a vote at TransLink’s Mayors’ Council.

It would then seek a bulk purchasing agreement with TransLink during its term. The party argues Surrey’s population gives the municipal government an opportunity to negotiate a better price, reducing the municipal government’s annual financial contribution as more residents participate. According to the provincial government’s statistics bureau, Surrey’s population reached 703,531 in 2025, and it is expected to grow to 703,910 in 2026, 718,000 in 2027, and 736,000 in 2028.

Passengers under the program would pay $70 per month, while the City would pay any required difference to TransLink under an established bulk purchasing agreement.

“Surrey is on its way to a million [residents]. We have the buying power. It’s time City Hall used it,” said Imagine Surrey city councillor candidate Narima Dela Cruz.

The party points to existing post-secondary public transit pass programs and the City of Victoria’s initiative as examples of bulk purchasing. It also contrasts TransLink’s adult one-zone monthly fare with the $85 adult 30-day pass available on BC Transit’s Victoria Regional Transit System.

According to a 2024 report by BC Transit, the City of Victoria-funded Youth U-Pass provides free public transit to residents aged 13 to 18. BC Transit charges $11.25 monthly per eligible youth, but requires payment for every eligible youth living within the municipality’s jurisdiction, regardless of participation. When Victoria’s municipal government initially switched to purchasing passes only for participating youth in 2020, it received a smaller 10 per cent bulk discount, paying $40.50 per pass. The $85 adult 30-day pass is a separate, standard regional fare, rather than a special rate secured through municipal bulk purchasing.

TransLink already offers a program allowing employers to cover some or all of their employees’ public transit pass costs. However, it does not itself subsidize passes under that program.

At current fares, the proposed municipal contribution would amount to $566.40 a year for each resident receiving the subsidy for all 12 months, before any negotiated discount or administrative costs.

Imagine Surrey’s platform announcement does not provide a total municipal budget for the subsidy, eligibility details, a cap on the program’s participation, an estimate of how many residents would sign up, or a potential launch timeline.

It is also unclear whether a bulk purchase program of this scale would generate net gains in both ridership and fare revenue over the short-, medium-, and long-term, enough to cover growing operating costs and future new and improved services to meet ridership demand, especially from the program’s direct impacts. These are very major considerations TransLink would likely weigh carefully.

Fare revenue is TransLink’s second largest revenue source after regional property taxes.

The public transit authority continues to face structural revenue challenges, with its current operating budget balanced through a combination of recent, larger-than-usual increases in fares, property taxes, and parking taxes, alongside another major round of provincial operating subsidies since 2025. The BC NDP-led provincial government has also promised to enact new legislation to provide TransLink with major new revenue sources to replace the operating subsidies it has continuously received since the 2020 pandemic shock. Meanwhile, the existing provincial operating subsidies are expected to run out by the end of 2027.

Beyond discounted TransLink fares, Imagine Surrey is promising to coordinate traffic signals and widen select major roads to improve travel for buses and drivers. It would also build 50 km of sidewalks along roads that currently lack them.

The broader transportation platform calls for three bus rapid transit (BRT) routes, advocacy for a SkyTrain extension through Newton to South Surrey, and West Coast Express commuter rail service on the south side of the Fraser River. The party also promises a public washroom at every public transit hub within Surrey’s jurisdiction.

Imagine Surrey is running a full slate of eight candidates for City Council. In addition to Starchuk and Dela Cruz, other candidates under the party’s banner entail Yousef Aldabainah-Barakat, Chandan Chahal, Perminder Chohan, Ashiyana Hanif, William Li, Margaret Mubanda, and Kevin Wilkie.

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