03-07-2022, 06:41 PM
(03-07-2022, 05:58 PM)KingandWeber Wrote:(03-07-2022, 05:00 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I find this a really uncompelling argument. We are not a special flower. I don't see anything about our region that necessitates some unique fare structure. We may WANT to do things differently, and that's entirely reasonable, but it is entirely based on preference. I don't see that there is anything local here that uniquely REQUIRES or JUSTIFIES us doing something differently.
As for the clarity about costs, I'm not a corporate accountant and I wasn't present for the negotiations. I'm not sure at what point Presto details would have become known, and I completely agree that we should not sign a blank cheque. But I also don't really believe that is the circumstance that would occur. Keep in mind, before the RFP no prices were known at all, we only knew what our estimates was. I am certain that a Presto number could have been known, if we had pursued it.
What is clear to me is that staff did not want presto, and neither did council. Regardless of whether it was for a good reason or bad, or whether long term it was a good decision or bad, it was made based on the wishes of council and staff, and they were not interested in public input on that decision.
I might be wrong about this, but I thought the biggest issue was university passes. AFAIK, Presto would not support (and still does not support) any kind of u-pass system like the Region already had in place with the local universities (where there is a hugely discounted subscription, but it requires all students to have to mandatorily subscribe). Financially that would have been a big hit to them and would have required them to break their agreements with the universities. Obviously it could be done, but I suspect the Region was very worried ridership would crater without students having a mandatory pass. Presto also had a ton of bad press at the time as I recall with Toronto essentially allowing anyone to board free at a number of stations for months while issues were resolved (I remember being at such a station). With that all being said, I think we should be thinking about moving to Presto since I do think universality is such a big benefit. I really don't think the decision at the time was so black and white though as others have said.
Presto absolutely does support this kind of thing, most places which use Presto have universities, and many of them have subsidized passes, some with the same model as ours.
Fundamentally, there is no problem with that with Presto. I believe the only limiting factor is that students use their UW or Laurier student card AS their bus pass, and this wouldn't have been possible with Presto, students would need to have carried a Presto card in addition to their student card.
This is exactly the point, yeah, it's not exactly what we want, but it's hardly the insurmountable obstacle that it is made out to be. And given that many students also use GO, it probably hardly matters at all.