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[SIZE="3"]Fredericton is using the popularity of the city's annual jazz festival to fuel its latest attempt to boost the number of people riding its buses.

The city is already in the midst of a pilot program that discounts the regular $2 fare to 50 cents on weekday evenings and Saturdays.

But now, Fredericton Transit will offer [B][COLOR="Red"]free service all day on Saturday[/COLOR][/B], a promotion aimed at the thousands of music fans who will be visiting the city for the annual Harvest Jazz and Blues festival.

Along with helping clear the streets of festival-goers, Tony Whalen, the chair of the city's transportation committee, said it's a way to expose more people to the transit system.

"I think the decision was made to do it on a Saturday and Saturday evening because it's one of the busiest nights of the festival and we thought it was a good way to get people out of the downtown for free," he said.

The jazz festival started on Tuesday and wraps up on Saturday night.

Whalen said the regular Saturday discount initiative hasn't increased ridership much so far.

But he said that should change now that people are back from vacation and university classes have resumed.

"We'd like to take a look at the numbers after September and a bit of October. That way it will give us a chance to evaluate ridership," Whalen said.

"We're hoping to see an increase in the fall compared to what we [saw] in the summer with the pilot."[/SIZE]