07-31-2017, 08:52 AM
(07-31-2017, 07:23 AM)MidTowner Wrote: As someone who is often the beneficiary of the currently over-generous transfers and operators (last week, I got to get off the bus, attend a 60 minute meeting that was held just off my route, and then get back on the bus to carry on without another fare- that's not what the transfer is "supposed" to allow you to do), I have to agree that the current practice isn't ideal.
You're not meant to be able to conduct round-trips with a transfer. The longest routes in the system aren't more than 90 minutes long. If you took a bus to Ainslie from Conestoga Mall, you'd still be able to use a transfer to get on a Cambridge local to your final destination. Ninety minutes (or perhaps a tiny bit more, given what riders are accustomed to now) should be enough.
Says who? One of the advertised benefits of the timed transfer, at least in some place, is precisely that one can do a number of small trips on one fare. Also it’s just sensible — in Toronto you have the ridiculous situation where technically I’m in violation if I pop into the corner store at my transfer point.
My point is that right now the transfer is de facto closer to a 2 hour transfer already, so let’s stick to that number. Or maybe advertise 90 but make it actually be 105. I don’t know exactly. For sure making the new ones 90 is, de facto, a reduction in transfer time. Although arguably 99 is not, if the operators adjust their existing transfers every 15 minutes and stick to the exactly 90 minutes. Except they don’t.
Here’s another idea: stick to the strict 90 or 99 minutes, but ease up on the fare increases for a few years.