11-09-2015, 03:25 PM
(11-09-2015, 03:18 PM)SammyOES Wrote: I know a lot of members on this board don't like to hear it - but more and cheaper transit doesn't always mean more profitable or affordable transit. Sometimes a level of service isn't affordable and cutting costs / increasing revenue is the sensible option.
So if the demand isn't there for a particular level of service - sometimes the level of service needs to be reduced. That obviously means less overall ridership - but it may mean a much more efficient system.
Increasing (or even maintaining) the absolute amount of ridership is not the only goal here.
I have no idea what the actual numbers in Guelph indicate - but cutting service where there isn't the expected demand makes a lot of sense in some situations.
That's one thing to say when we're talking about whether a route should have 7 or 10 or 15 minute service, or whether fares should be closer to Ottawa's or closer to Toronto's.
It's completely another when you're talking about making service once an hour - all but unusable - and yet making fares higher than any major city in the country. If hourly is the best you can do, then you have truly given up on transit being usable by anyone, resigned to letting a very conservative/low tax mayor/council members try to gut it into an unusable morass that they would soon as well completely get rid of.