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I agree that the routing of 92 is less than ideal for the general public. It looks mostly like they took the end of 7D/E and made it the University Loop. I agree that there will definitely be students who take the bus to get around to the other side of campus, and we are now losing this root that goes to other places that people want to go besides UW.
I'm only one person, but I have wanted to use the University Loop in the past. Since it has been a peak service only it does not fit my schedule. Now when it becomes a high frequency all-day service, it won't be useful to me either.
I do not agree with the economic argument, and I think that if you do the math you will find that students are not paying 26% of the cost, and that the students who pay and do not ride the bus mostly offset the discount that is enjoyed by those who do ride the bus.
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(09-29-2016, 09:00 PM)Pheidippides Wrote: (09-28-2016, 08:57 PM)BuildingScout Wrote: So your comment seems to single out students for no good reason, I'm sorry to say.
I don’t know what a proper analogy would be, but maybe imagine the outrage that would be generated if that school bus shuttling drivers from the parking lot on Dominion to Sunlife/GRH were a GRT route that parking lot users got to use for a fraction of the full GRT fare and only operated at shift change times.
I don't agree that the services are provided at a fraction of the cost. Every student pays for the bus pass including those who use it not at all. My guess would be that the price paid per trip is not that different from a corporate pass in which only interested employees sign up for it..
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Every students pays for a bus pass + 75% of them live off campus and hence pay property tax through their rent.
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(09-29-2016, 09:38 PM)BuildingScout Wrote: (09-29-2016, 09:00 PM)Pheidippides Wrote:
I don’t know what a proper analogy would be, but maybe imagine the outrage that would be generated if that school bus shuttling drivers from the parking lot on Dominion to Sunlife/GRH were a GRT route that parking lot users got to use for a fraction of the full GRT fare and only operated at shift change times.
I don't agree that the services are provided at a fraction of the cost. Every student pays for the bus pass including those who use it not at all. My guess would be that the price paid per trip is not that different from a corporate pass in which only interested employees sign up for it..
The corporate pass is also paid by the employers, the amount GRT gets for a corporate pass is more than what the employee pays.
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Lots of GRT related reports in the planning and works agenda for next week:
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/region...6-1004.pdf
Included are some rough timelines of some of the federal projects that recently got funding.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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Why is the new Fairway terminal only $2 million and the University hub $4 million? There's more demolition involved at Fairway...
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(09-30-2016, 05:32 PM)KevinL Wrote: Why is the new Fairway terminal only $2 million and the University hub $4 million? There's more demolition involved at Fairway...
Demolition is cheap, though.
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I guess. I'm just curious what makes the UW project so pricey in comparison.
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Does it include the new roadway?
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A few points from various reports now that I have had a chance to read them:
From the Program Update on the Transit Supportive Strategy for Cambridge, 2016:
-Cambridge transit use in 2015 (2,855,988) is below 2011 levels (3,338,147) and well below the 2013 peak (3,661,007)
-40% of the decrease from 2013 is attributed the change in school board policy; other factors include ride-sharing, fare increase greater than the rate of inflation, construction delays, lower fuel prices, and service reductions
I knew K-W accounted for most of the GRT ridership, but I had no idea it was that imbalanced.
From the Transit Safety, Security and Fare Enforcement report:
This plan has the following (3) three objectives for fare enforcement:
1. Maintain fare evasion across all GRT services at 3% or less as measured annually by on-board and on-platform observations as well as analysis of collected data;
2. Complete annual inspections of 10% of GRT’s total daily ION ridership and,
3. Realize a safe and secure environment onboard buses and trains, in facilities and on platforms.
Everyone move to the back of the bus and we all get home faster.
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(09-30-2016, 11:49 PM)KevinL Wrote: I guess. I'm just curious what makes the UW project so pricey in comparison.
Maybe they had to buy more land?
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The 2021 map shows Ottawa St. crossing the Grand River to Breslau. Is that actually on the horizon? I would have thought we would have seen some sort of planning for it by now if it's supposed to be done by 2021.
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(10-02-2016, 07:13 AM)jamincan Wrote: The 2021 map shows Ottawa St. crossing the Grand River to Breslau. Is that actually on the horizon? I would have thought we would have seen some sort of planning for it by now if it's supposed to be done by 2021.
It's on the books as a long-term project, but I don't think we'll see it within 5 years. I think they just pulled out a base map with 'all planned roads' to put this one onto.
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(10-02-2016, 07:51 AM)KevinL Wrote: (10-02-2016, 07:13 AM)jamincan Wrote: The 2021 map shows Ottawa St. crossing the Grand River to Breslau. Is that actually on the horizon? I would have thought we would have seen some sort of planning for it by now if it's supposed to be done by 2021.
It's on the books as a long-term project, but I don't think we'll see it within 5 years. I think they just pulled out a base map with 'all planned roads' to put this one onto.
I think about three years ago it looked like a definite short-to-medium-term go, and that last year council went back and moved it to the "maybe, sometime in the future" category due to NIMBY concerns.
A good example of this might be the Westmount extension, which first entered the books sometime in the 70s and was finally built in the mid 2000s, also against much local opposition.
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