Leon: Calgary Transit fare hike would have been a huge insult to passengers

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Officials who have the audacity to raise public transit fares as part of the Calgary City Council’s 2023-26 budget deserve reproach.

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If bus and train fares rise by 11% over the next four years,We hear gritted teeth from transit passengers who are already facing an increase of around 11% since 2017.

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Monthly passholders are now spending $1,344 a year on less frequent, unreliable, and in some cases less secure services than they did five years ago when they cost $1,212 a year in transportation. And does the city want clients to pay more?

In 2023, authorities magically found excess cash and froze transit fees at 2022 prices.

But it will take two years for fares to catch up by 2024. And finally, when riders start paying more for the transportation they need to get to work, school, and leisure, it should be worth it.

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With buses and trains filling up, and sometimes overcrowding, again, transport authorities should hire and train more drivers to restore services that have been dwindled by the pandemic and previous budget cuts. promised

For all practical purposes, Calgary no longer has a major transit network.

15 hours a day, 7 days a week, there is no transit where you can wait for your next ride in less than 10 minutes.

Significant service cuts due to COVID-19 prior to 2019 budget cuts have wrecked a system redesign that began in 2018.

don’t try it now.

Twice this past weekend, I observed a customer trying to transfer from one bus to another, but when the first bus arrived, the second ride left the stop, causing a 30 minute wait until the next departure. Had to wait ~40 minutes. It doesn’t always happen this way, but when it does it sucks.

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Even with meticulous travel planning, it can take a long time to reach your destination.

A few days after the last heavy snowfall, I had some business in an industrial area and didn’t feel like driving, so I took transit. I thought that I could certainly use the training I had obtained.

It took about 3 hours round trip. When it became clear that the industrial park’s local bus was significantly behind schedule, they decided to take the unplowed roads and sidewalks (where the sidewalks used to be) to reach another connection. Otherwise the journey would have taken even longer.

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By comparison, under ideal conditions, all would take 40-60 minutes by car.

Just as law enforcement and politicians are trying to deal with the social chaos and serious crime explosions on their networks, transit service hours are being rehabilitated.

The newspaper has previously documented the impact of the ongoing addiction crisis on the transportation system, which is occasionally used as a temporary, supervised drug site.

I’ve written about witnessing the controversy on CTrain escalate to the point of violence.

And just last week, I was worried that innocent passengers would catch fire after someone used a flare gun in the mezzanine of the Marlborough LRT station.

Such situations cannot be accepted as normal. Yes, the root cause of these problems has nothing to do with transportation, but you don’t have to face threats or actual violence while on a bus or train.

To say that Calgary Transit customers have been patient is the most understatement.

Improvements are desperately needed on all fronts before city officials dare to demand riders pay an extra cent. Fairbox payback rates are terrible.

rleong@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @RickyLeongYYC