City
Morning Brew: No Zoned Fares for TTC, First Canadian Place Facelift, Pricey Push for Pandas, DriveTest Fraud, JK Wine Bar Sold
Photo: "exit exit exit, etc." by thru the night, member of the BlogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Switching our public transit system to a zoned fare arrangement (i.e. what you pay is proportional to how far you travel) is not part of the plans for the TTC. Why not? It's difficult and expensive to make the switch, and the revenue model is revenue-neutral. Um... wouldn't a revenue-neutral model be better than our current model, which apparently creates greater deficit with increased ridership?
The nation's tallest building, First Canadian Place (aka the BMO building), is getting a major facelift. Exterior Italian marble paneling (heavy stuff that fell in winds storms in the spring) will be replaced by white glass. What will become of all the old marble? I think it should be donated to the city, so we can use it for a swanky public art piece or park walkway!
The Toronto Zoo is considering adding a pair of giant Pandas to their exhibit list, a move that would likely boost attendance and revenues. But do they really need to send a 9-person delegation to China to secure the animals and then build a $15-million facility to house them?
Getting a fraudulent but real driver's license (which can then be used to rip off banks, to skirt traffic offenses, and for all kinds of other illegal activity) would be easy if you had people on the inside. Arrests have been made and charges pending after as many as 160 false licenses were allegedly issued out of the Orangeville MTO DriveTest office. You'd think they'd have measures in place to account for all cards, and a means of flagging off counts.
And Jamie Kennedy has sold his Wine Bar. The new owners plan to keep the slow food and local traditions of the place alive, but also plan to focus on Mediterranean flavours... and dabbling in Turkish and Tunisian. Sounds great!
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This was also in the news (not exactly Toronto news though)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32974370/ns/world_news-world_environment/
<i>"Conservationists should "pull the plug" on giant pandas and let them die out, according to BBC presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.</i>
<i>"Here's a species that, of its own accord, has gone down an evolutionary cul-de-sac," Packham told Radio Times magazine.</i>
<i>Packham believes that money spent on conserving the panda would be better invested in other animals as the species is not strong enough to survive alone."</i>
No.
As for FCP. I heard the marble is supposed to be ground up and used on the forthcoming Sugar Beach project.
In Vangroovy the zone system combined with a time based fare that's good for 1.5 hours (as opposed to the transfer system) resulted in an /increase in short trips./ I recall one day that I needed to pick something up downtown at Eatons and the easiest solution was to get on the bus: one single $1.75 fare got me there and back. On the TTC my "transfer" wouldn't have been valid for the return trip, unless I took a convoluted round about route.
I'm not sure how people in Surrey feel about their fares, which are quite a bit more expensive. Evenings and weekends aren't "zoned" though, so really it means that if you live in Surrey (say..Scarborough) and work downtown your trip to work costs more, but not your pleasure trips. Monthly passes are discounted significantly, and get used more on weekends.
I had a Metropass for a while, but only because my mother paid for it when I went to university. That thing was way overpriced.
Toronto Transit fares are a joke.
Of course Vancouver's system is chronically underfunded and has all the same complaints, so...WTF do I know?
We need to switch over to a new method of paying fares to reduce delays on buses and streetcars.
Viva and GO transit already uses pre-paid fare mediums (Viva using buy-before-you-ride, and GO with the card punching as well as the smart card)
If we look at other transit authorities, most already are switching to provide quick boarding, without needing to fumble with change.
Even in much smaller cities, like Adelaide, Australia (with a pop of 1 mil), the buses and trams (like our streetcar) uses the punch card system. In the case of buses, the bus driver wont start driving unless they hear a noise by the punch card machine (which is located directly behind them).
Seems like a large disincentive to using the TTC as well.
I agree that a card system should be implemented in the subways though that don't allow people in and out of the system without proper payment (like NYC). Of course, the TTC union wouldn't like that very much, would they?
Perhaps they can spread out the different collectors to the unused booths at the various stations.
people should know that's not true.. the TTC turned down advertising ideas.. advertisers are willing to pay
And buses are never late.
And the drivers wear white gloves and slick hats.
And they take their jobs very seriously and provide service with pride.
However Perth just revamped its zoned payment system with RFID cards so on every train or bus you touch your card to the reader when you get on and touch your card to the reader when you get off. You can't get on the bus until the driver hears the beep sound the reader makes. They are a much smaller city (1 million) but have very little people living in the downtown and most people commute from the suburbs. I ended up having to pay much less there than the flat rate in Toronto because the Toronto like high rates weren't until you got further out. They tested and launched the new system in about 3 years.
In Toronto a zoned system might end up puting more pressure on GO transit where someone in Scarbrough might end up using GO instead of the TTC because it would be cheaper. I think a hybrid between an RFID based system and the system that @Jerrold described in Japan would work well here.
Machines in the stations allow you to refill your card any time, or you can buy disposable fixed amount cards as well.
There are many times where I would take the TTC, but paying $5.50 is a joke, so I will either walk one way and TTC back or drive.
Introduced 5 years ago for both subways and buses. Swipe it when you enter and exit transportation and the right amount is charged. If you don't use a card you pay a premium (or they advertise it as a discount for using the card).
The new system was subsdized by barlcays bank who advertizes on the back of the card and pays for the right to issue a debit card that can also be used as an oyster card.
Benefits to the system faster entry and exit to subways and buses. Saved money on ticket collectors. (Unions will hate it but what can you do).
Alternatively, the TTC should be forced into bankruptcy and then renegotiate all of thier union contracts
Harris-Eves governments. In other words,
it's a private concern acting for the
government.
Yet again, we have another of Harris' legacy
creating problems.
You realize you just endorsed a 29% increase in TTC fares, right? When the TTC says revenue neutral, they mean that their current revenue wouldn't go up or down, not that there would be no subsidy to the transit system.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to think that it's bad for public transit to receive a subsidy. Do you also realize how boneheaded that would be as public policy???
However, the matter of personal honour there is different. No one would even consider not paying the fare. The idea of paying at the end of the trip will result in all kinds of trouble here. We'll have tons of people, who got on the bus "for free" and took their ride, skipping the fare and running off. (It already happens with taxis frequently.) So, the TTC is better off just charging the flat fee to get on the bus.
The city doesn't have the density needed to provide as much coverage as it does and be profitable. The TTC is more like a public service than it is a business.
Like I said in my earlier post, the apparent loss of revenue by people whose short term trips would be halved in price (or more) would be offset by the increase in volume by folks who would be encouraged to use the TTC for a 6 or 10 block trip if the price were reasonable. Of course the TTC will f$#k it up by forecasting wrong, by over-crowding, but then that has more to do with the union refusing any sort of upgrading of the system, like automation and the use of smaller buses.
Quick to solve that - you're only allowed to get on when you tag, then you get charged maximum amount (to the end of the line/route) unless you tag when exiting.
If we wanted to get really fancy, I'm pretty sure RFID can work on distances such that you would automatically tag when walking through a door.
That money could sure help those down out out homeless people looking for a second chance in their lives.
Please don't forget the Federal Tax Credit for transit passes (www.transitpass.ca). In 2008, it was 15%! If you buy metropasses throughout the year, that's $196.20, making your $109 metropass actually $92.65. If you take the TTC to work Monday to Friday, you will often save a couple bucks over buying 10 ticket/token bundles, or only need to use the pass one more time in a month to make it worthwhile. There's value in the convenience of the pass as well.
On a senior or student price, it's a different story however.
Spend the $15 million sending the TTC staff elsewhere to see how it's done.