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Bus riders might be finally fed up with road construction, changed routes and detours affecting transit schedules.
OC Transpo recorded 48 million customer trips in the first half of 2017, which is 1.5 million fewer trips compared to the same period in 2016.
According to Transpo’s tracking system, ridership has remained steady during the traditionally busiest times of day, but it has dropped off in the evening hours.
Is it possible that longtime transit customers are choosing Uber?
Are transit customers riding their bikes instead?
Are loyal bus riders investing in a good pair of sneakers rather than transit passes for their short trips?
Those were some of the theories offered on Wednesday during a meeting of the transit commission, which received a mid-year budget update.
Transportation general manager John Manconi seemed willing to concede that, perhaps, the road and route changes that are necessary to build the Confederation Line LRT are finally getting to people.
Everyone at city hall hopes the LRT is the answer to a stabilized, or even better, increased, ridership.
It’s only a good guess that more people will be willing to take a comfortable, efficient train service to travel to points between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair station. Transpo is being conservative in its ridership projections.
But the city still hasn’t identified the start date for LRT service in 2018. Manconi didn’t have the answer on Wednesday.
Until the trains are rolling through the downtown tunnel, the bus system will be susceptible to illegally parked cars, snowy roads and regular commuter traffic.
Troy Charter, director of transit operations, said the downtown routes have been precarious during the afternoon commute, making it difficult for buses to meet the schedules.
“The challenges will continue,” Charter told the commission, describing the expected state of transit operations until the LRT line opens.
The transit commission no longer receives regular updates on how often Transpo buses are running on time. The metrics are, however, sent to the commission chair, Stephen Blais.
There are no statistics publicly available yet on how often buses have been running on time in 2017.
Between July and December 2016, buses on morning commuter routes had a 77-per-cent on-time rate, while the morning regular routes registered an on-time rate of 63 per cent.
In comparison, between July and December 2014, before LRT construction, buses on morning commuter routes had an 81-per-cent on-time rate, while the morning regular routes registered an on-time rate of 67 per cent.
Those kinds of statistics no longer reach the table of the transit commission.
It’s not that Transpo isn’t transparent with the data, since the agency is making several statistics available on its website.
But gone are the days when transit commissioners received quarterly and annual updates on how well the transit system is performing and could question managers on those reports. The last performance report tabled at a commission meeting was for the 2014 operations year.
In fact, city council in March 2016 voted to stop receiving performance metrics for all city services because staff believed the statistics weren’t timely enough to provide value to politicians.
As for Transpo, it’s facing a projected revenue shortfall at the end of 2017 because of the ridership fluctuation.
Manconi still trumpeted Transpo’s ability to get 96 per cent of its revenue budget, a rate with which he says most organizations would be happy.
“The sky is not falling,” he said.
Transpo continues to point to an unpredictability of customers choosing how to pay (buying a monthly passes versus using the Presto e-purse) as another factor affecting revenue. There’s also a post-secondary institution that bought fewer “u-passes” than anticipated for reasons unclear to Transpo, which wouldn’t identify the institution.
Despite the revenue shortfall, Transpo thought it would break even at the end of the year because the agency isn’t spending as much as it expected.
However, settled and pending lawsuits could throw a wrench into Transpo’s financial forecast.
Manconi said insurance claims, such as those related to the deadly crash between a bus and train in 2013, could sink Transpo into the red since those settlements are charged back to the transit agency.
“That’s going to be the one that’s going to get us into a worse situation or in a bit of a deficit at the end of the year,” he said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
OC Transpo recorded 48 million customer trips in the first half of 2017, which is 1.5 million fewer trips compared to the same period in 2016.
According to Transpo’s tracking system, ridership has remained steady during the traditionally busiest times of day, but it has dropped off in the evening hours.
Is it possible that longtime transit customers are choosing Uber?
Are transit customers riding their bikes instead?
Are loyal bus riders investing in a good pair of sneakers rather than transit passes for their short trips?
Those were some of the theories offered on Wednesday during a meeting of the transit commission, which received a mid-year budget update.
Transportation general manager John Manconi seemed willing to concede that, perhaps, the road and route changes that are necessary to build the Confederation Line LRT are finally getting to people.
Everyone at city hall hopes the LRT is the answer to a stabilized, or even better, increased, ridership.
It’s only a good guess that more people will be willing to take a comfortable, efficient train service to travel to points between Tunney’s Pasture and Blair station. Transpo is being conservative in its ridership projections.
But the city still hasn’t identified the start date for LRT service in 2018. Manconi didn’t have the answer on Wednesday.
Until the trains are rolling through the downtown tunnel, the bus system will be susceptible to illegally parked cars, snowy roads and regular commuter traffic.
Troy Charter, director of transit operations, said the downtown routes have been precarious during the afternoon commute, making it difficult for buses to meet the schedules.
“The challenges will continue,” Charter told the commission, describing the expected state of transit operations until the LRT line opens.
The transit commission no longer receives regular updates on how often Transpo buses are running on time. The metrics are, however, sent to the commission chair, Stephen Blais.
There are no statistics publicly available yet on how often buses have been running on time in 2017.
Between July and December 2016, buses on morning commuter routes had a 77-per-cent on-time rate, while the morning regular routes registered an on-time rate of 63 per cent.
In comparison, between July and December 2014, before LRT construction, buses on morning commuter routes had an 81-per-cent on-time rate, while the morning regular routes registered an on-time rate of 67 per cent.
Those kinds of statistics no longer reach the table of the transit commission.
It’s not that Transpo isn’t transparent with the data, since the agency is making several statistics available on its website.
But gone are the days when transit commissioners received quarterly and annual updates on how well the transit system is performing and could question managers on those reports. The last performance report tabled at a commission meeting was for the 2014 operations year.
In fact, city council in March 2016 voted to stop receiving performance metrics for all city services because staff believed the statistics weren’t timely enough to provide value to politicians.
As for Transpo, it’s facing a projected revenue shortfall at the end of 2017 because of the ridership fluctuation.
Manconi still trumpeted Transpo’s ability to get 96 per cent of its revenue budget, a rate with which he says most organizations would be happy.
“The sky is not falling,” he said.
Transpo continues to point to an unpredictability of customers choosing how to pay (buying a monthly passes versus using the Presto e-purse) as another factor affecting revenue. There’s also a post-secondary institution that bought fewer “u-passes” than anticipated for reasons unclear to Transpo, which wouldn’t identify the institution.
Despite the revenue shortfall, Transpo thought it would break even at the end of the year because the agency isn’t spending as much as it expected.
However, settled and pending lawsuits could throw a wrench into Transpo’s financial forecast.
Manconi said insurance claims, such as those related to the deadly crash between a bus and train in 2013, could sink Transpo into the red since those settlements are charged back to the transit agency.
“That’s going to be the one that’s going to get us into a worse situation or in a bit of a deficit at the end of the year,” he said.
jwilling@postmedia.com
twitter.com/JonathanWilling
查看原文...
