Fare Planning for Student Transit Riders

Practical Fare Strategies and Technology to Make Transit a Go-To Choice for Students

A clear fare strategy for youth and student riders can maximize ridership and create long-term transit advocates. In this article, we’ll explore age-specific fare strategies – from elementary school through post-secondary – and the fare technology that enables them. We’ll demonstrate examples that show how thoughtful pricing, smart fare media, and robust system integration can attract younger riders while also supporting reliable and stable transit operations and fare sales.

Why Fare Planning Matters

Students represent a significant share of transit ridership. According to APTA, students account for 10.7% of all public transit riders by occupation [1 – APTA]. If your service area includes large schools, then students can make up a much higher percentage of your ridership.

A robust fare strategy ensures:

First-time riders (especially elementary and middle-school students) have a positive introduction to transit.
Back-to-school fare sales surges are handled with seamless product availability and self-service channels.
Year-round engagement, so post-secondary students keep riding through breaks.
Reduction of staff workload and fare-evasion opportunities.

Modern fare technology is the key enabler here – whether through contactless tags, mobile barcodes, or integrations with student information systems. This article walks through real small and mid-sized agency examples. We’ll cover best practices to help you design and launch a fare strategy that attracts and retains student riders.

Youth & Student Fare Strategies by Age Group

Fare programs designed for students work best when they are tailored to the rider’s stage of life. An elementary school rider’s needs are different from a post-secondary student’s, and fare models should reflect that. Small and mid-sized transit agencies across North America have implemented creative solutions to make transit more accessible for younger riders. These solutions also help build long-term ridership habits. In this section, we’ll look at age-specific fare approaches. We’ll also explore examples from smaller agencies and the fare technology that makes these programs run smoothly.

Elementary & Middle School (ages 5 to 13)

At the earliest stages of transit use, the goal is to create a positive first experience and remove barriers to trying the bus for the first time. For elementary and middle school riders, fare-free travel or deeply discounted fares can make the difference between choosing transit or relying on using the school bus or car rides. At the same time, guardians value simplicity and safety, while school boards need to ensure student transportation costs are predicable.

Transit agencies can be seen as a partner to address these concerns and offer an alternative to traditional student transportation.

Fare models: Sell school passes that offer unlimited transit use during the school year for young riders enrolled in eligible school programs. Or raise the child-fare age threshold to include more young riders.
For example, Mountain Line (Arizona, USA) partners with Flagstaff United School District (FUSD) to provide ecoPASSes to all middle and high school students and staff who live within Flagstaff city limits. In the 18 months since launch, FUSD students and staff accounted for 5% of total ridership.

Alternatively, Maryland’s MTA (Maryland, USA) raised its child-fare threshold from age 6 to age 12, allowing elementary riders to board at no charge to encourage ongoing transit use habits. The full fare policy details are posted on the MTA’s site here.
Fare technology: Use transit-issued or school-issued smart cards, with options like lanyard holes to attach them to backpacks or wear with lanyards so they are difficult to lose for young riders. Alternatively, consider wearable RFIDs such as bracelets which are also difficult to lose. Consider adding fare restrictions to help balance demand and fare revenue, such as unlimited travel on weekdays only, or passes that are valid for specific routes.
Fare distribution: Bulk sales / issuance at new student orientations with pre-loaded transit cards. Consider using TransitFare Cloud’s Batch Sales feature.

High-School (Ages 14 to 18)

High school students can have more complex travel patterns – commuting to school, after-school jobs, sports practices, and social activities. Fare models for this age group need to support flexible travel beyond the school day while keeping costs low. Some agencies implement fare caps so high school riders never pay more than a set daily or weekly limit, while others expand fare-free programs to cover evenings and weekends.

Fare models: Deeply discounted semester passes valid across all routes, or summer-only passes to help encourage continued transit use during the summer break. Using fare caps can also be effective to ensure students don’t exceed daily spending limits, regardless of the number of trips.
For example, Halifax (Nova Scotia, Canada) is offering free smart card passes for children in grades 7-12. Passes are valid for the entire school year. Read more.

Other transit agencies, such as Airdrie (Alberta, Canada) and Woodstock Transit (Ontario, Canada) offer deeply discounted summer passes valid for July and August [Airdrie council backs motion to draft $25 summer youth transit fare], [Transit Fares and Passes – Woodstock Transit].
Fare technology: Use contactless smart cards or mobile QR codes with onboard validators such as the TF2 Validator which have a built-in NFC reader and barcode scanner. Make fare products easy to purchase when selling direct to riders since it could be either guardians or students making the purchase.
Fare distribution: Sell directly to riders across web, mobile and in-person channels. Work with schools directly to promote or distribute fare products as part of orientation days.

Post-Secondary (ages 18+)

Post-secondary riders typically make regular, all-day use of transit to get to classes, internships, part-time work, and social events. A universal pass program – that’s funded through tuition or student association fees – can offer unlimited travel at a fraction of the per-ride cost, while giving transit agencies predictable revenue.

Many small and mid-sized agencies partner with local colleges or universities to integrate campus ID cards or mobile passes directly with their fare systems, making access seamless.

Fare models: Semester or annual passes bundled with tuition or student association fees. Discounted options for students purchasing fare products directly.
For example, Orillia Transit (Ontario, Canada) sells an annual pass to Lakehead University students directly via the student union (LUSU). LUSU accounts for approximately 7% of total ridership, provides a reliable source of income for the city, and allows students the convenience of transit use for a year.

Similarly, Regina Transit (Saskatchewan, Canada), city council approved a four-month pilot (September–December 2025) granting Johnson Collegiate students unlimited free transit rides. City staff budgeted $90,000 and one additional peak bus on Route 9 to handle the expected additional demand as the school board did not have the necessary funding.
Fare technology: If existing student IDs have built-in RFID, work with the school to do a direct API integration with their student information system and your fare platform. Alternatively, your fare platform can push out mobile barcodes to the school’s student app to eligible students. TransitFare Cloud supports both approaches.
Fare distribution: Work directly with post-secondary institutions to distribute fare products, using transit agency smart cards or directly via an integration with their student information system and your fare platform.

Fare Technology Implementation Best Practices

Even the best fare policy will fall short if the underlying technology isn’t there to support it. For student and youth fares, technology determines how easy it is to get the fare product, how seamlessly it integrates into daily routines, and how efficiently agencies can manage it. The right technology also ensures that programs scale well, remain cost-effective, and meet privacy and equity goals. Below are four key best practices to keep in mind when planning or refining your fare system for student riders.

Maximize Fare Sales Channels & Distribution

Students and their families will only take advantage of a fare program if it’s easy to obtain and renew passes. Limiting distribution to one or two options can lead to frustration and lower adoption.

Prioritize self-service options, direct-to-school distribution, and omnichannel visibility to ensure that fare products are easy to purchase.

Online: Offer an online self-service fare store for students and/or parents to purchase smart cards and mobile fares securely. Consider a platform such as UseTransit.
Mobile app: Similar to the online fare store, but an iOS and Android mobile app with options for generating and displaying a barcode for validation.
Guest purchase: Allow students and parents to make fare purchases without creating an account – ideal for quick purchases without the need to create and activate an account.
Partner with schools: Preload smart cards and deliver them in bulk to schools before the start of the term. Or consider an API-based integration with the institution’s student information system so that transit cards or student cards are automatically loaded with a semester pass.
Omni-channel product availability: Ensure that fare products are available across the entire fare platform. In the case of TransitFare Cloud, this would be across Teller App, UseTransit and Guest Purchase.

Select the right Fare Media

Selecting the right fare media is essential to a success fare strategy, especially for younger riders. The right media type should balance durability, security, loss-prevention, ease of replacement, and compatibility with your existing validators. Consider the following guidelines:

Contactless plastic smart cards are durable. Optional features such as including a lanyard slot can go a long way, especially for younger riders who can use lanyards to keep cards secure. High school and post-secondary students will likely be more familiar or comfortable with using a plastic card for contactless fare validation.
Photo identification can be integrated into contactless cards where it is needed to help reduce fare evasion.
Wearable RFIDs such as bracelets or key fobs can be easier for younger riders to keep secure on their person or belongings. They are also durable with rough daily use.
Mobile barcodes can be integrated into your rider app (such as UseTransit) or even directly into the school’s student app. High school and post-secondary riders are the more common target demographic since they are more likely to have access to smart phones.
Existing student IDs are ideal provided they already have built-in RFID that is compatible with your validator (e.g. MiFare RFID tags with the TransitFare Validator). Work with the school board or institution to do an API-level integration between their student information system and the transit fare platform to automatically issue semester passes to eligible student cards.

Integrate Your Fare Platform with a Student Information System

Fare sales typically surge during the back-to-school rush, which can create significant demand on customer service staff. Self-service options, such as UseTransit, go a long way to reducing the demanding sales spike for in-person sales.

By integrating your fare platform directly with a student information system (SIS), you can automate much of the work of getting semester passes out to students. Your fare platform will automatically get the latest list of account IDs eligible for a student or semester pass and publish it to your onboard validator, smart cards, and/or mobile app.

We Can Help

Designing and implementing a fare program for student and youth riders takes more than just setting a price. It requires the right mix of policy, technology, and operational planning. At TransitFare, we work with agencies and municipalities to create fare solutions that are simple for students to use, easy for schools to administer, and efficient to manage.

Whether you’re launching your first student fare program or upgrading an existing one, we can help you:

Configure your fare system for age-based discounts, fare capping, and flexible media options.
Integrate directly with student information systems for automated pass loading and billing.
Distribute passes through multiple convenient channels, including mobile and smart card formats.
Analyze ridership data to measure impact and refine your program over time.

Contact us to learn more about TransitFare’s automated fare collection system and how it can help your transit agency be relevant with young and student riders. We’re happy to schedule a demo, or discuss how we can tailor our solutions to meet your transit needs. Together, we can help you reach your transit goals.