New rules that allow kids 12 and under to ride London Transit for free take effect on Sunday.
The decision to eliminate children's bus fares was made by city council in November.
"We are hoping we will get more children on the bus and that it will make public transit more attractive to entire families, which means we will get more adult riders as well,' said Kelly Paleczny, general manager of London Transit. "There is not a lot of jurisdictions to look to to see what kind of impact this has had because not a lot have programs like this are in place."
The Toronto Transit Commission is among the only municipality nearby that has stopped charging kids to ride.
Paleczny said the new system comes with no other requirements for kids to ride for free, other than physically climbing on board the bus.
"We are looking at issuing some form of smart media that will tie in with our smart card system but that won't happen for a couple of months," she said. "We are contacting a number of options in terms of distributing that media, we are looking at possibly working with the school boards so that we can get those cards in the hands of students. We are going to make it as easy as possible for parents to get a hold of the smart card media, once we've got it in place."
It will be up to bus drivers to use their discretion when deciding whether a child boarding the bus is 12 and under.
"Essentially that process has been in place for a long time. The fare that use to apply applied to that same demographic so our operators are use to using their discretion and making that call," said Paleczny.
The new program will cost the city roughly $150,000 based on existing revenue for kid's fares. A single ticket for a child use to cost $1.35 or $5.50 for five tickets. Tickets purchased before the new rules came into effect will not be refunded.
In addition to helping low-income families travel around the city, the move will help promote public transit to children from a very young age, hopefully driving up ridership in the years to come.
"At the end of the day, we are grooming a future generation of transit riders. That's really what it's all about," said Paleczny.
Children age five and under have always ridden London Transit for free.