Is toonie too much to take the bus? (Winnipeg Free Press Story)

(Ahh Winnipeg City Council, I mean Shitty Council)

My Rant about the article:

Ahh Winnipeg, articles like this honestly cheer me up and make me happy that I left, but it still pisses me off that my hometown is slowly becoming a shithole.

Lindsay and I discussed our issues with Transit when I was just there. Basically, the mayor is either stupid or hates Winnipeg, and wants to see it die. I remember him one summer doing a photo op where he rode the bus with seniors on a weekday afternoon in N.Kildonan, talking about transit service and how they don't want the BRT. This is fine but, I didn't see the mayor riding a packed 60 in the morning going to the University where another packed 60 was following behind. I didn't see the mayor address the issue of the BRT to the university students. I believe in the end seniors got a discount. Here in Calgary I believe the regular fair is $2 however, there is an LRT and a book of 10 tickets is worth $17.50, so $1.75. Special discounts for seniors and the disabled. And reduced fares for university students and regular students.

I know that it seems that I can act all high and mighty especially when Alberta has a 5B dollar surplus. But the reason why Calgary has an LRT and has cheap prices is simply because they planned ahead, (and they needed an LRT for the Olympics). They planned the LRT back in the 70's and started construction in the 80's (did I mention that the LRT is emission free cause they get the power used by the train from wind generators. So it costs the city nothing, but the transport of the electricity). Winnipeg has been planning since the 50's and continues to plan. In fact the mayor is putting in the BRT but more planning is being done (read that in the paper when I was there). So when your kids are in university and paying $100.00 to ride the bus, I'm pretty sure that the city will have begun building the BRT. But honestly transit here any that great, you miss any bus or the train your basically going to be late 1/2 an hour to 1 hour. What I'm saying is service ain't great, (especially the bastard drivers here, they like taken off right away at the train stations, leaving people behind or running after the bus), but at least I don't have to pay too much for crap service that has an LRT. Compared to Winnipeg that has crappy service for more money. And that the city doesn't give a damn about youth. Calgary is the youngest city in Canada (avg age 35) and they know it and cater to the younger demographic.

But I think this is the plan of Mayor Katz. By increasing the fares it will only lead to more people using cars and thus prove his point in fixing roads (which need to be done anyways) because of the increase traffic. Instead of putting in a BRT and fixing transit to increase ridership and thereby reduce the amount of cars on the road.

Well, that's my rant. Like I said to Lindsay, the city seems not to care about the youth and thereby the future. I honestly and whole heartedly want to be back in Winnipeg. The life I had there was much better. But it seems that other then the people I know gov't doesn't want us there and expects us to leave. They don't listen to what we need and want, and then they wonder why our generation doesn't care about issues. Why say anything when no one is willing to listen. I guess I'll comeback to Winnipeg when all the older people are dead, no immigrants are willing to stay, and the gang members have killed each other and other young people, leaving Winnipeg a ghost town for the ex patriots to rebuild and bring it's true potential. But seriously I'll go back when the city has hit rock bottom and the idiots have been run out of town. That or a better gov't that gives a damn is in place.

Thank you for your time.


The article:

Saturday, November 26th, 2005



Is toonie too much to take the bus?

City's fare proposal unfair, says riders

Saturday, November 26th, 2005

By Mary Agnes Welch and Alexandra Paul


IT may cost a toonie to take the bus next year, a whopping 15 cent increase that has councillors and bus-riders crying foul.

The proposed hike hits seniors, students and disabled persons even harder. They will pay 45 cents more next year if council approves the increase.

That's because Mayor Sam Katz and his cabinet are looking to do away with reduced fares that make it cheaper for low-income riders to take the bus. All riders dropping coins in the fare box may owe a toonie starting Jan. 1.

"They're eliminating the reduced-cash fare?" said Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, a vocal supporter of transit. "Holy..."

The price of monthly passes and bus tickets would also go up, but only about three or four per cent. But Gerbasi said many seniors and low-income people often don't have enough money to invest in a $71.25 monthly pass or a sheet of tickets. At bus shelters last night, transit riders reacted with predictable chagrin.

"This is just one other way students will be poor," said University of Manitoba science student Ted Vailas waiting for the No. 22 bus at Portage Avenue and Memorial Boulevard. "It takes me an hour and a half to get home. It'll just cost me more."

Seniors and students said they're feeling targeted by the fare hike.

"Forty-five cents? That sucks," said a high school student at Polo Park Shopping Centre who gave his name as Adrian.

One white-haired senior said she's depended on the bus to get across town for 35 years. "I don't believe it!" the woman said, adding she didn't want to give her name. "I'm over 75. You can't afford it but what are you going to do?"

Another rider, Allan West, expressed anger and disgust at what he sees as deteriorating service on the routes he uses daily. "See this bus pass?" he said waving it in front of a reporter's face. "I feel like ripping it up."

The new cash fares puts Winnipeg almost on par with big Canadian cities with subway systems, skytrains or light rail transit systems (LRTs).

Toronto charges people $2.50 to ride its subway, but students pay only $1.70. In Vancouver, it costs about $2.25 to take the skytrain, but seniors and students pay only $1.50.

The transit department needs more money to cover rising wages and diesel fuel prices and to buy new buses. The hike would generate $1.69 million in new revenue.

"It sounds to me like a cash grab," said Coun. Russ Wyatt, who helped author council's recent bus rapid transit report.

That report, which many fear will gather dust, recommended the creation of an independent transit authority that would take the politics out of fare hikes.

Earlier this year, Katz tweaked the fare structure to give seniors a 50 per cent break on monthly passes and bus tickets compared to regular fares. That move won't be jeopardized by the planned hike, which applies only to cash fares.

City councillors -- and the Free Press -- got a sneak peek at the fare plan late yesterday afternoon, but the recommendations won't be made public until Monday.

Katz was in Vancouver and could not be reached for comment. Coun. Bill Clement, who chairs the public works committee, could also not be reached for comment.

And Transit boss Dave Wardrop said he couldn't comment on the fare hike because it's part of next year's budget deliberations, which are done by Katz and his cabinet behind closed doors.

"It's one of an infinite number of directions we could go," said Wardrop.

For the last several years, the city has hiked transit fares by five cents, and every year many councillors swear it's the last time they'll vote for an increase.

A report by transit's finance expert to city council says changes to cash fares tend to harm the poor the most. But it said a simple fare structure is better and the higher price might prompt more people to buy a bus pass, which would encourage them to take transit more regularly.

The report also notes than an attempt to eliminate the reduced fares for students, seniors and the disabled in 1998 was met with such public outcry that council reinstated the reduced fares the following year.

Council's public works committee will debate the fare hike Thursday.


maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

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Rising cost of a ride


Proposed city transit-cost hikes:


REGULAR
* Cash fare -- $1.85 to $2.00
* Sheet of 10 tickets -- $18 to 18.50
* Monthly pass -- $69.30 to $71.25


STUDENTS
* Cash fare -- $1.55 to $2
* Sheet of 10 tickets -- $12 to $12.50
* Student monthly pass -- $55.45 to $57


HANDI-TRANSIT
* Cash fare -- $1.85 to $2
* Sheet of 10 tickets -- $18 to $18.50
* Monthly pass -- $69.30 to $71.25


SENIORS
* Cash fare -- $1.55 to $2
* Sheet of 10 tickets -- $9 to $9.30
* Monthly pass -- $34.65 to $35.65

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