$8.00 Ticket to Family Fun

Here’s a great new reason to take the bus in Hamilton. A whole family of up to six people can ride the HSR all day on one $8 ticket. And at over 70 locations around the city, they’ll receive discounts on admissions, products and services - for showing their ticket.

The HSR day pass isn’t new, but it might as well be, because almost no one knows about this great deal. Despite 60,000 riders a day on the HSR, the average sales of the ten-year-old day pass is 30!

That’s already changing because of the ideas and energy of EH’s Brenda Johnson who has put together our new program dubbed Passport to Hamilton.|

The project grew out of EH’s work in low-income communities and a real need for affordable holiday opportunities for families.

We have now partnered with over destinations across the city, ranging from museums and recreation centres, to restaurants, cafés and several watefront attractions.

Families (or any group of at least one adult and up to five kids under 18) can take the bus down to the Art Gallery of Hamilton, where they’ll get $10 off the regular family price, then hop on a bus down Main Street and visit the Hamilton Children’s Museum and receive buy-one-get-one-free admission.

They can finish the day off with a free kids ice-cream cone with one adult purchase at Hamilton Waterfront Scoops, or go swimming with your family at the YMCA for free. This simple program offers literally thousands of possibilities for low-cost family adventures.

Over the next year and a half, we’ll be helping Hamiltonians to discover the pleasures of our city without ever turning on the car - or even owning one.

A full colour fold-out brochure and map shows all the bus routes and all the discount locations with a description of what they have to offer. Most are publicly-owned recreation, art and entertainment facilities, but as word spreads of the project, we are quickly signing up more eating establishments and other private businesses.

Corporations are stepping forward to cover the cost of free passes - in addition to some provided by the HSR - so we can take them into the schools this falll to encourage students to plan a day trip and get their whole family onto the HSR.

Major funding is being provided by Transport Canada’s “Moving on Sustainable Transportation” program, supplemented by a $15,000 grant from the city of Hamilton, and extensive in-kind assistance from the HSR, Tourism Hamilton, the Chamber of Commerce.

Planning and development for the project was backed by the Hamilton Community Foundation who are actively supporting its implementation.

The July 18th launch at Williams Coffee Pub on the watefront included MPs David Sweet and Wayne Marston, MPP Andrea Horwath, and Chamber executive director John Dolbec - who promised to double the number of private partners in the project for 2009.

For more information click on Passport to Hamilton. It lists all the discount locations, as well as all the outlets where you can purchase HSR day passes.