If the whole experience so far with UPX has taught us anything, it is that Metrolinx, as an agency, doesn’t necessarily have a keen instinct for divining the mind of the common commuter when it comes to matters of the farebox. By lowering the price Tuesday, they showed at least that they learned something, albeit under heavy pressure from their political masters at Queen’s Park. For all of our sake, let’s hope that learning is integrated into how they approach their upcoming projects, all of which are vastly more important than UPX for GTA transportation as a whole.
- Edward Keenan
5 comments:
I'm not holding my breath. GO fares have been increasing steadily at least 5% annually since I started riding it, which far outpaces salary increases and inflation, so it's totally unsustainable. For folks like CJ and I it's now $20/day to commute in, which is a price that my TTC-riding colleagues (some of whom travel nearly the same distance) can't fathom. It's actually cheaper to drive in at this point, which is not really the direction I think we want the region to be headed in.
^ Agreed.
GO prefers steady, incremental increases every year rather than some years with no increase and others with a huge increase. Or so I've been told by senior GO officials.
The fact these increases far outpace our pay increases seem lost on them.
The quote isn't so much about just the fare structure, it's about the ability of the agency to capably do the job they are tasked with doing. The Toronto region has many unique aspects which weren't adequately addressed by the initial UPX rollout. We are not Hong Kong!
I don't get it.
Metrolinx planners can't plan, apparently.
They can't plan fare increases that make sense.
They can't integrate a regional system worth a damn.
They can't roll out a "modern" fare card system (actually 20+ year old tech) without stepping on their John Thomases.
They have problems planning for capacity and parking...
Yet, they must be valued planners because we pay them the big bucks.
How to square this circle?
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