In a nutshell, passengers who pay a cash fare of more than $8.25 a ride, will be paying 50 cents more per ride.
PRESTO customers will be paying 5% more. I only have figures for Oshawa to Union as this is the only fare I know. If I math this right, my fare will increase from $8.78 to $9.22 (an increase of 43.9 cents rounded) or $18.44 a day, bringing my monthly average fare to $318.00.
Now before you grab your shirt and start twisting it in your fists, just remember I am no champion at math. So I could be wrong in my calculation. I am waiting on math majors to confirm my numbers.
When I started traveling GO back in 2008, I think my monthly fare was $252.50.
This fare increase isn't approved. The Memorandum can be read here.
Those of us who travel the farthest will really feel it in the wallet.
There hasn't been a board meeting in the history of Metrolinx where a fare increase was rejected, according to my sources, so get ready to pay more on February 1st.
23 comments:
Lucky for me I start a new job in the New Year that's a 5 minute drive from home!
I've done the math from Whitby.
Currently, I pay $8.15 per ride for the first 35. After that, it's $1.10 to ride 40. For a total of $290.75 per month (assuming a full month of rides).
With the fare hike, I will pay $8.60 per ride for the first 35, and $1.16 after that. Brings the new total to $306.80 per month. A difference of $16.05 more, or 5.5%.
What torques me about this is that they're claiming 5% but inflation is 2.7%. Why an increase at double the rate of inflation????
And for those of us hit with the 50¢ per ride hike, what do we see for that increase - that is tangible!?!?
Two people can drive and park downtown cheaper than using GO from Durham Region.
GO bought 263 Double Deckers at, on average $600 - $800K a bus. That's $15 to $21 million. So that explains a lot.
From the memo: "Sufficient funding to maintain the high levels
of reliability, safety and customer
service that have been sustained
over the last number of years."
Hahaha good one. Oh wait, that wasn't meant as a joke?
If you guys want ghetto, go ride the TTC. GO Transit may be expensive but the trains are clean.
^ That's all you could come up with?
OMG!!! It went up 4.8% last year. COME ON! My salary doesn't go up that much.
Year after year after year.
I figure this is an indication of what inflation really is, not the government's lying figure.
Also I suspect that the switch from monthly passes to Presto had an impact on their revenues. People who telecommute rather than trudge in, either occasionally or often, ended up saving a substantial amount of money.
They're clawing it back from everyone.
Actually, a full month (35 x $9.22 plus 5 x $1.22) will be $328.85 for Oshawa riders like you, CJ (and me). Meanwhile, nobody gets 5% increases in their paycheques (I don't, anyway). No doubt the TTC will shortly follow suit... merry Christmas to all!
From the Globe and Mail in July:
"Metrolinx employees will receive a pay hike of more than 8 per cent as a result of a deal struck mere days before last month’s provincial election.
The raise demonstrates the difficult position the Ontario government is in as it struggles to control labour costs and balance its budget. The province is not enforcing a wage freeze, but will provide no new funding for pay increases, which means Metrolinx – and any other agency that gives its workers a raise – must take money from some other part of its budget to fund the increase."
Uhuh. Uhuh. The picture grows clearer. Someone has to pay for that 8% increase to all those people on the Sunshine list. Guess who? Hint: it's not the government.
Fantastic, yet another greedy corporation sticking their hand in my pocket and taking more of my hard earned cash.
Q. What do I get and have gotten for this over the past 6 years of almost annual fare increases ?
A. A sign in the Milton GO parking lot telling you to drive to Lisgar when the lot is full (pretty much after 7:30) every single day.
A. A service that is late almost every single day getting to Union...although they make sure to keep it under the "Service Guarantee"
A. A limited number of trains into and out of Toronto, all full, all doing the milk run
Enough.
Let's keep the employees out of this argument. The pay raise was over 5 years, not all at once. Unionized will get 1.2% this year and salaried will get 1.4%, far less than the proposed increase.
Educate yourself rather than relying on rags like the Star and Sun before commenting FFS.
That makes the picture a little clearer I think.
That being said, anything more than 2% fare increase is far too much to charge.
I could rant and complain, and there are a lot of valid reasons to rant and complain about the GO and this increase, but after driving in one day in rush hour traffic for 1.5 hours from Whitby I will just sit here in my seat with the arm rest hogging, loud mouthed, too much perfume/cologne wearing, seat saving, foot riding idiots I do every day and just suck it up.
Wasn't our Metrolinx bullhorn, er...spokesperson, saying no fare increase for 2014 after the last pay increase?
4.8% increase in 2015 is what they are going to use to pay for it. Let me guess they went to get a bank loan in 2014 to cover off the pay increase and say there would be no fare increase as a result of this deal in 2014. Now the bank loan's interest is starting to pile up on the borrowed money and a 4.8% increase is required.
Let's remember in the past that one of the main drivers for a fare increase was the increased price of fuel. Where's the price of gas now? Headed southward below a $1 and I imagine diesel for the trains is so.
So Anne Marie Aikens needs to explain this. But, please, lose the spin.
My biggest beef with this is not about the frontline workers. it's about 2 other things.
1 being that a fare crease a awhile back ago was cited on rising fuel costs yet today we are at a 5 year low.
The 2nd being, these stupid pointless Pan-Am Games have to be paid for somehow!
Saul T Knuts
What's with the constant substantially above inflation increases? One year it was blamed on gas prices spiking. Now gas prices are dropping and they still want more than double inflation. If you can, take advantage of the gas price drop and drive to the next station closer to Toronto and work from home more often.
Wow. Call the WAHHHHHHHBULANCE!
Gas prices are down and are expected to stay below a $1 well into the new year and beyond. Canadians are expected to save $30 a week which means it will cost you half of what it used to cost you to drive to the station, so suck it up as you will well be able to afford it.
I take the GO bus. Where's my savings in gas?
Peter. The $30 per week savings is for the average commuter. A GO train commuter on average drives less than a few kms.
On top of that, the last fare increase was a result of "higher fuel costs", according to Metrolinx.
So with Fuel Costs down so much, why are fares continuing to rise???
Says who? I routinely see disgusting trains and stations.
I got a 9% increase last year; expecting similar this year.
Possible GO has signed a multi-year a contract with a fuel provider with the price of fuel locked in at a set rate, so monthly to yearly fluctuations may not affect what GO pays until the contract comes up for renewal again.
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