Transit
March 18th, 2010
signs of an early spring.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
March 17th, 2010
On January 1, 2010, the TTC raised the cost of adult tokens and cash fare by 25 cents. On March 20 2010, GO Transit will raise fares by 25 cents per single-ride ticket, with a corresponding fare increase for 10-ride tickets and monthly passes. But despite these fare hikes, and sustained ridership levels, both will be cutting service in March and April.
To be fair, this isn’t quite the 1990s, the so-called “lost decade” for transit. Most customers, apart from GO train riders with slightly longer rides, will not notice much of a change. There is yet little sign of a transit “death spiral” of higher fares, reduced ridership, and service cutbacks that plagued much of that decade.
The TTC’s surface route cuts are minor, and most of the cuts occur during the peak period. A handful of routes will actually be seeing minor service improvements during off-peak service periods, particularly on weekends, based on ridership counts. The precedent set by the Ridership Growth Strategy 30-minute standard for nearly all surface routes remains.
But some routes - where overcrowding is still a very common occurance - will be affected. For example, the 96 Wilson is seeing one bus cut from each of the A, B, and C branches - or three buses in total during the AM and PM peaks. Two sources I spoke with - a senior staffer inside the TTC, and one outside the TTC - confirmed that the cause of the cuts are due to the common problem of poor ridership forecasting.
The expectation was that the 25 cent fare increase (one of the highest in recent history) would reduce ridership, hence some cuts on the highest-frequency rush hour services. The good news is that TTC ridership is still growing, even despite the fare increase and other customer service frustrations. The bad news is that earlier service projections and resource budgeting requires buses (and two streetcars - one each from the 505 Dundas and the 506 Carlton) to be pulled off the road.
It will not be until September when the next major service changes will be implemented, though seasonal changes (an annual response to reduced loads over the summer period, reduced demand on the 196 York University Rocket, increased demand on the waterfront routes and the Exhibition routes) will still go ahead.
GO Transit, on the other hand, will be making far more significant schedule changes, “to meet the needs” of a “growing ridership.” This bit of transit double speak actually translates into some major service cuts: cancelling several bus routes, cutting service on some other routes (beyond the usual seasonal service reductions on the Highway 407, Guelph and McMaster routes), and increasing run times on other buses and trains.
Despite the usual claims that a fare hike will help to pay for current operating costs and “provide improved services needed for our growing ridership,” these changes mostly represent cuts that reduce service instead.
March 13th, 2010
Safety First.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
March 11th, 2010
Form and function.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
March 9th, 2010
At a packed Board of Trade speech last week, Rocco Rossi vowed that as mayor, he would “put everything on the table” in negotiations with the province over the future of the TTC (and, by implication, its murky relationship to Metrolinx).
Everything?
Rossi seems to be implying that the TTC’s very status as a city agency may be in play if he wins. Rival George Smitherman doesn’t appear to disagree. In an interview with The Star, Smitherman (who’s found religion on the topic of contracting out) mused about outsourcing bus routes to private operators, as is done in London. He’s been vague about the rest of his TTC plans (the precondition to all changes, he said in an email, is the city getting its “house in order”), although he praised Metrolinx and called for more seamless transit within the region in a speech to the Board of Trade last December.
Time to call these guys out. If elected, are they planning to have council ask the province to upload all, or part, of the TTC to Metrolinx? And if so, what are the arguments? And what would drive the province to agree?
Spacing contributors John Lorinc and Steve Munro bring the debate out of the rhetorical shadows.
The Case For Uploading
In the past sixty years, the TTC has served Toronto well, concentrating growth within the former Metro boundaries and driving intensification closer to the core. In the 905, by contrast, municipalities and the province failed to invest comparably in transit, leading to today’s gridlock, productivity losses, and sprawl.
The region’s transportation crisis, however, cuts across municipal borders.
March 6th, 2010
Last month, I had the opportunity to visit Bogotá. As late as a year ago, I had never expected to visit Colombia, as it was not on my radar as an interesting - or safe - place to enjoy some time away. But a family wedding brought me here, and many of my preconceptions went out the window. The people are friendly, the countryside beautiful, and the security much improved. (It was especially nice to be so far south at a time when even the US south was suffering from a lingering cold snap.)
Bogotá, the nation’s capital and largest city (with a population of about 8 million), is also one of the world’s highest cities, with an elevation of 2600 metres. The city is spread out on a north-south axis, As Bogotá has grown, so has its transportation headaches. Like most Latin American cities (even including those with heavy-rail metro systems), the principal mode of public transit are private minibuses, which travel along all the major roads with the route posted on the windshield, merely a long list of neighbourhoods and landmarks the unscheduled service stops at.
Huge fleets of minibuses, stopping anywhere they are flagged down, aren’t exactly the most efficient mode of transport, though it can be convenient (and cheap) for passengers. Combine those buses (of varying age, upkeep and tailpipe emissions), with trucks, motorbikes, private cars and other street traffic, in a city surrounded by mountains, and you have a recipe for a smoggy, congested, mess. So the city, under the leadership of bold, clever (and sometimes near-dictatorial) city officials began to address it with a three-pronged attack: buses, bikes, and bans.
During the last decade, Bogotá took the lead of Curitba, Brasil, and began rolling out an advanced bus rapid transit system, called TransMilenio. TransMilenio solidified the Latin American tradition of high-concept BRT systems (which has been replicated in Mexico City to augment its already expansive Metro system) with a complex web of routes operating in exclusive lanes and serving fare-paid platforms in simple, modular, stations.
March 3rd, 2010
There was an interesting article in the Star recently (with a misleading headline) about how Chicago’s chief financial officer arranged leases on profitable city-owned infrastructure with private companies, and so raised billions of dollars of capital for the city. These assets included some parking garages, all the city’s parking meters, and the Chicago Skyway, a 7.8 mile toll bridge and road connecting two expressways.
Leasing is certainly a better option than selling valuable city assets outright. The city raises needed money, and then, eventually, the assets return to the city and it can either start managing them again and get the revenue directly, or re-lease them.
It’s not ideal, though. Leases tend to be very long term (e.g. 99 years), so it’s not much different from privatization in the short term. And it might not make a lot of economic sense to sell or lease an asset that makes good money (such as Toronto Hydro), as economist Jim Stanford explains in the article:
“Think of Toronto Hydro,” said Stanford. “The city typically earns an annual profit of about 10 per cent on its equity investment. Some of that (but not all) is paid to the city as a cash dividend; but even the profits that are retained inside Toronto Hydro are still new wealth for the City.
“If you sell off an asset that earns 10 per cent, in order to pay down debt (or avoid new debt, which is equivalent) on which you pay 5 or 6 per cent interest, have you made a good decision? Obviously not.
“Your balance sheet is no stronger: debt is lower, but so are your assets.”
On the other hand, reading the article (especially the mention of the Skyway), I wondered whether it might make a sense to set up a lease on city assets that don’t earn any revenue but have revenue-generating potential, with a private company that is able to earn revenue with them. In return, the city could get a big dose of capital funding. I am thinking of the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway, which were handed over to the city to manage (and pay for) as part of the Harris government’s downloading.
March 2nd, 2010
Paradoxically clean.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
March 1st, 2010
From what I can glean, there are three competing explanations for what former Liberal health minister David Caplan was up to last week when he introduced a private member’s bill that would declare the TTC an essential service.
Let’s quickly dispense with the loose cannon version. Premier Dalton McGuinty has always run a tight ship, and it’s inconceivable that a member of his caucus could introduce a private member’s bill - especially one that addressed the jurisdiction of a senior minister - without a vetting process from the central command. Indeed, as a well-placed Liberal source assured me, “This was planned.”
What the move sought to accomplish, however, remains the subject of much speculation.
Theory A: A shot of electoral ginseng for George Smitherman.
After Caplan tabled the bill and transportation minister Kathleen Wynne declared it a non-starter, the premier said in the legislature that it’s an important issue for the mayoral race. Smitherman - who hasn’t been quick off the draw with anything so far in this race - had a statement of support all teed up and ready to go:
“I want to applaud David Caplan’s Private Members’ Bill as it reflects an appropriate source of concern about the cost of a TTC strike to the city and commuters - there can be no doubt that work stoppages cause a huge disruption. I look forward to the debate continuing in the Legislature - including a full committee hearing with public consultations. Based on the outcome of that debate, we can have a fulsome discussion about the options the city might have in the future.”
In other words, he’s marking territory among right-of-centre voters.
February 23rd, 2010
This has been the warmest winter ever.
Street Scene will appear each week showcasing the illustrations of local artist Jerry Waese.
