Calgary Transit

[CBBarnett]

There's also an element in Sunalta of spillover effects from actions being taken in other parts of downtown.

If we don't address the root problems that lead to crime, poverty, mental illness, homelessness etc. and instead use tools like one-off crackdowns and "clean the core" initiatives every once in a while, the result is - predictably - shuffling people to other areas and not solving anything.

 

[outoftheice]

Interesting video on how North American transit systems are trying to combat drug use...

 

[InfrastructureEnthusiast]

If we don't address the root problems that lead to crime, poverty, mental illness, homelessness etc. and instead use tools like one-off crackdowns and "clean the core" initiatives every once in a while, the result is - predictably - shuffling people to other areas and not solving anything.

I agree, but unfortunately the root problems aren't really local, just the results.

The opium war, housing crisis and catch and release policies are all in Ottawa's jurisdiction, not the city or province.

Interestingly, it turns out the cost of housing a prisoner in Alberta is roughly the same as the cost of a one way ticket from YYC to YOW...

If the problem is going to get shuffled, might as well be off to the only place than can fix this!

 

[ByeByeBaby]

There's a survey up on the Free Fare Zone: https://www.calgarytransit.com/plan...are-revenue-review/free-fare-zone-survey.html

(Not sure why this isn't being done through the regular engagement process... But it's such an easy to remember URL so I'm sure it'll get well used.)

 

[CalgaryTiger]

Calgary moves ahead with data dig on downtown free fare zone, transfer window extension - LiveWire Calgary

Data diving was on the menu as Calgary city council approved two transit initiatives that could lead to changes to the downtown free fare zone, and the length of transfer windows. While councillors ultimately debated the merits of implementing both, the motions presented at the Feb. 24 Regular...

livewirecalgary.com

Ward 6 Coun. John Pantazopoulos said that no immediate decisions were being made on either issue at that meeting. Both required further investigation by city administration before councillors could move forward.

His motion, co-sponsored by Ward 3 Coun. Andrew Yule, was a full review of the downtown free fare zone, and any potential options for the area.

“It also dovetails directly with the Calgary transit’s broader fare review, which we just heard discussion about, allowing us to look at the free fair zone as part of a coherent system, rather than in isolation,” Pantazopoulos said.

Had I missed the fact that CT was doing a broad fare review? Turns out yes, although the only thing listed on this site is the Free Fare Zone survey.

Fare Revenue Review

www.calgarytransit.com

There are a lot of different cities that do different things, hopefully they look outside to see what others are doing. They should also engage with their provincial partner to see what they're thinking for their rail projects. Some synergies could be found there so it doesn't have to be redone in a few years.

 

[lemongrab]

Within the framework of the current fare system (without a total overhaul), this is what I'd like:

$5 Peak hours fare. (say boarding 6:00-9:00am and 3:00-6:00pm)
$2.50 off-peak fare, youth fare anytime

Extend free fare zone to encompass the flood plain: Erlton, Sunalta, Sunnyside, Bridgeland. But at peak hours it's a $2.50 fare.

Teenagers can get an annual pass at the seniors rate ($169). It can be administered through schools onto student IDs like UPass (which provides a channel to deal with miscreants). It's weird that youth fares are 66% of adult, but youth monthly passes are 73% (35 trip breakeven compared to 32 for adults). I'd be happy to heavily subsidize youth mobility. I think you'd also get a a good chunk of middle+ class parents happy to pay that just so they can say "take the bus".

Anyone U25 can get UPass for same rate as Upass (on the same trimester schedule)

Keep adult monthly passes about the same, or maybe a slight increase; higher peak fares should lead to more monthly passholders. I think it's fine that our commuter style system has a lower number of trips to breakeven than most bigger cities, where you are much more likely to use transit on evenings/weekends. Not sure it would be really necessary, but you could do an off-peak/flood-plain pass at 50% the cost - and those users could top up with a 2.50 fare for peak hours trips.


So a bit of a hybrid zone/time based system, without having to totally overhaul the system. In the end it's more complicated and would generate less revenue - so pretty great! But fare revenue is an arbitrary number and I think it would be worth a short term reduction to make transit cheaper/easier for young people and convert more of them into lifelong riders. It's also a bit of a subsidy to people living in the core.

 

[Chowda7]

Council voted to extend the transfer limit to 2 hours

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/transit-transfer-window-extension-9.7104782

 

[InfrastructureEnthusiast]

Interesting item from the 3 year AB budget

Maybe there's some wiggle room in the wording there, if the plan was to extend blue line to the terminal they likely would have said connection, not connector?

Good news regardless, and happening much faster then I expected!

 

[outoftheice]

Apparently the majority of this money is just the existing Green Line funding and the previously announced design studies for the Blue Line extension to 88th as well as the eventual airport connector. Still no money to actually build anything new.

 

[lemongrab]

Looks like just 4 Million towards the YYC connection.

Somewhat interesting that they keep the LRT projects to a single combined line item - which seems to also include the routing of federal funding - which also explains why the number seemed to be about twice as high as I thought (IIRC the federal 1.53B was spread over 10 years? maybe same timeline for provincial funds?)

Of course they split out each provincial highway project (while also having $661M in a less specific bucket). I imagine it's just a matter of each having a separate accounting code for each, but I would think that would be the case for LRT, too.

 

[outoftheice]

It also helps it appear to the public that this government is funding transit in a big way even though almost all of the funding was announced a decade ago by a NDP government.

 

[darwink]

(IIRC the federal 1.53B was spread over 10 years? maybe same timeline for provincial funds?)

Federal funding recognition is based on reimbursement of activity under accrural rules. Provincial flows are sometimes advances, sometimes reimbursement, sometimes a combination of the two, to reconcile the cash requirements of the province with the cash requirements of the city.

Total amounts is what matters.

Some of this could be for old projects as well--I forget if Edmonton's LRT agreement had provincial payments over the construction period, over 10 years, or over 30 years.

Accounting rules can make these look weird, and mismatch between the cash accounting and the accrual account can be huge.

 

[lemongrab]

Federal funding recognition is based on reimbursement of activity under accrural rules. Provincial flows are sometimes advances, sometimes reimbursement, sometimes a combination of the two, to reconcile the cash requirements of the province with the cash requirements of the city.

Total amounts is what matters.

Some of this could be for old projects as well--I forget if Edmonton's LRT agreement had provincial payments over the construction period, over 10 years, or over 30 years.

Accounting rules can make these look weird, and mismatch between the cash accounting and the accrual account can be huge.

And the federal funding routes through the province on a similar (but not necessarily identical) basis, right?

I suppose it is possible that there could be some money earmarked in there for a Nose Creek alignment, but I'd think it would be more in years 2/3...also a little interesting that year 3 is lower ($564M) considering Green Line will be in full swing and Valley Line West finishing up, but as you say it's not worth reading much into the accounting particulars