Comment 50368

By Tartan Triton (anonymous) | Posted October 25, 2010 at 16:28:31

@ Undustrial: "I fully understand that rising oil costs put added strain on transit budgets, but raising fares is an amazingly short-sighted way to deal with it."

I'm not saying that it has to be fares. I'm just saying that if you want a fare freeze or rollback, you'd do well to have some alternate financing options in hand. And again, when there's more active voting power in Wards 6-8 combined than Wards 1-5 combined (going off 2006 numbers), it might make sense to address transit gaps in mountain wards in order to gain the political leverage needed to convince pols to throw real money at transit. Otherwise you're looking at more sardine cans.

@ d.knox: "I think we need to stop complaining about how expensive the bus is. The HSR ticket prices are cheaper than every service in the Golden Horseshoe except St. Catharines, which is the same price."

I somewhat agree with this as well. I believe there have been pilot projects to offer subsidized passes to those who can't afford the general rate, which seems sensible. But again, if government's commitment is flat and costs rise, the math suggests you'll either see higher fare or lower service. And LRT/Metrolinx, if and when, seems fated to push fares upward to a market norm. Where that will be is anyone's guess, but transit services from Burlington through to Toronto currently charge $3.

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