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York Region Transit: Viva service thread

smuncky said:
The only thing they have it wrong in that article is that the multipass will cost $106 and not $46.
Click to expand...

And the cash fare is moving to $3.25 from $3. It looks like council rejected the original staff recommendation to leave it at $3, and they missed that.

The print version of the article, which I saw, had a list of the fares and the multipass (Actually $105!) was correct there so probably just a typo in the article.
 
TJ O'Pootertoot said:
And the cash fare is moving to $3.25 from $3. It looks like council rejected the original staff recommendation to leave it at $3, and they missed that.

The print version of the article, which I saw, had a list of the fares and the multipass (Actually $105!) was correct there so probably just a typo in the article.
Click to expand...

Wow! YRT expands the gap between itself and the TTC's cash fare (IIRC TTC is still $2.75 right?). Is it just me or is this an indication that the VIVA plan has not increased ridership/revenue enough (in comparison to the expenses incurred for implementation) to cover it?

Interesting that they want to reach a 50/50 split between revenue from the farebox and subsidies, while TTC is up around 80%?

Why am I not shocked at the complete lack of concern by YRT riders at these fare increases, while any increase by the TTC is attacked from all sides.
 
I don't really think that's the case:
YRT is experiencing signficant growth ... likely the highest in the region.
VIVA has met expectations as well I think ... not surpassed them by any means but well ... here, have a look at the stats for the current year:

http://www.yrt.ca/whats-ahead/2008_Aug_Ridership_Summary_Con.pdf

Anyway the extra fair is required to fund the transit projects they have planned - also the model split is still very low and new service typically doesn't achieve high revenue / expense stats so it's needed.
 
You are correct that the increase will receive much much much less press attention and public outrage (at least that portrayed by the press) then if similar increases were to occur on the TTC.

Not sure what your point is though ... that's the way everything works. Take a look at residential property taxes for the best example.
 
taal said:
I don't really think that's the case:
YRT is experiencing signficant growth ... likely the highest in the region.
VIVA has met expectations as well I think ...
Click to expand...

YRT ridership growth was much less than their expectations, thanks to the lackluster performance of VIVA. 19 million riders were expected for 2006 but they only ended up getting 17 million. Even in 2007 they did not meet the expectation for 2006. Remember that had to cut a lot of VIVA service because the buses were empty.
 
Really? I never heard of that ... I think they didn't impose the VIVA *increases* in service as first as they first anticipated they would need but not cut service.

Hasn't VIVA blue exceeded ridership expectation? I know Purple isn't quite as good.
 
viva pruple is almsot useless on highway 7, because it goes souh on keele to York U, which obviously is its main concern, to get students to school, but the left turn at keele and 7 takes about 20 mins to do, and plus major congestion on keele down to York U, Unfortunately viva pruple isn't appealing, because it just dosn't offer any faster speed than the automobile to get to York U or anywhere on the line, because highway 7 is mostly allways congested around the vuaghan portion
 
A substantial portion of York Region's ridership growth has actually been handled by the Steeles East and Steeles West TTC routes...keep in mind that if YRT operated these two Steeles routes, YRT ridership would be like 50% higher overnight.
 
hmm:

19141839.15 (My predicted 2008 ridership #s ... assuming 5% growth from last year)

= 19141839.15 / 365 = 52,500 ... I'm sure ridership is higher on weekdays so let's just call it 65,000 per weekday:

Steeles West = 20,000 (old stat 2005)
Steeles East = 27,000 (old stat 2005)

Alright, you're pretty much right on : - )

Now my question to you is Steeles West/E seeing signficant ridership growth?

Are there any plans to split this route up between the TTC and YRT?

YRT does have several routes that operates on portions of steeles.
 
scarberiankhatru said:
A substantial portion of York Region's ridership growth has actually been handled by the Steeles East and Steeles West TTC routes...keep in mind that if YRT operated these two Steeles routes, YRT ridership would be like 50% higher overnight.
Click to expand...

This is quite true. Back when I lived in YRT land, I'd often get a ride to the Bayview and Steeles bus stop to avoid paying an extra 2 bucks for a 5 minute bus ride. I used to see an average of 2 people per minute getting dropped off at that bus stop from cars heading south on Bayview.

I think that fares - essentially $5.00 per direction for the majority of YRT riders - are wreaking havoc on YRT's ridership growth. The quality of service is almost there, but it just doesn't make economic sense to use YRT if you live south of Highway 7. Imagine how much better service would be if all the people who avoided YRT due to cost started using it again!
 
Chuck said:
This is quite true. Back when I lived in YRT land, I'd often get a ride to the Bayview and Steeles bus stop to avoid paying an extra 2 bucks for a 5 minute bus ride. I used to see an average of 2 people per minute getting dropped off at that bus stop from cars heading south on Bayview.
Click to expand...

As someone who has spent 95% of his life living on either side of Steeles Ave I've always found the double fare thing absurd. If Presto is rolled out in 2011 we'll still have 3 or 4 years before the subway opens and I will be curious to see how ridership shifts around on those southern routes.

I bet you see a lot more people on Viva/YRT while those Steeles busses start running a little lighter.
 
No I doubt it ... Steeles would just increase even more in that case. Although you make the case for people who get a drive to Steeles to avoid the double fair the majority just get a drive all the way to where they're going : - ) ... now people will take YRT down to Steeles and then Steeles if need be.

Steeles would definetly increase if that was case ... YRT already has a few routes that go along steeles and then down to finch ... with no double charge ... if finch is your final destination.

Give me an example of someone not needing to take the 53 or 60 if there was no double fare anymore. As I said we'll see increase on North South YRT routes along with Steeles!
 
The people taking YRT buses that travel along Steeles for a stretch are not getting on/off the YRT buses within walking distance of the Steeles TTC routes. These YRT routes travel along Steeles to get to the subway and the tens of people that they serve along the way are purely incidental. Getting rid of the double fare could trigger more people transferring to, say, Steeles buses, but the more likely result is that Steeles ridership will go down due to TTC routes continuing on north of Steeles...maybe not between Bathurst and Bayview but certainly farther east/west.
 
Again, sorry why would ridership drop on Steeles?

Currently someone who wants to go North on say Bayview or anywhere would instead do what? Why would removing the double fare change anything?

I still think it would actually increase ridership on Steeles.
 
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