By Staff
BURLINGTON, ON. March 13th, 2013 Doug Brown of Bfast believes the city is trying to pull a fast one with the trains fare increase of an across the board 8% hike due to go into effect May1st, if city council approves the Budget and Corporate Services recommendation at its Council meeting on the 18th.
Bfast (Burlington for Accessible Affordable Transit) a group in Burlington that advocates for better transit service and more prudent allocation of resources with a bigger focus on public transit.
Doug Brown, probably the one person in the city that has a solid understanding and depth of knowledge on transit matters and is a passionate and devoted user of public transit, says that the proposed increase “would take adult cash fares from the current $3.00 to $3.25. Such an increase would give Burlington Transit users the privilege of paying the highest fares in Ontario while receiving the lowest service levels.”
BFast, a Burlington transit advocacy group wants city council to defer the planned May 1st bus fare increase
The 2013 budget submission from Burlington Transit included no fare increase in the short-term, but did include the development of a process for adjusting fares. Bfast would support the development of such a process to fairly make periodic fare adjustments taking into consideration such factors as: affordability, inflation, impact on ridership levels; compatibility with fares in other Ontario municipalities; and comparability to other fee increases for municipal services.
Brown maintains the 8.4% fare increase is an arbitrary figure, unrelated to any of these factors.
“This fare increase”, said Brown “has been justified by the mistaken belief that the approved 2013 transit budget contains significant additional transit expenditures. This is not the case.”
Brown adds that: “Transit is still under-capitalized, and will continue to suffer from the $500,000 decrease in transit’s share of the Gas Tax money made by City Council one year ago. A few weeks ago, Council rejected Bfast’s request to restore transit’s share of the Gas Tax funding. Therefore, the reality is that net transit spending by the City has decreased.
Transit spending per capita in Burlington, continues to be only one half of the average spending by GTA municipalities
Residents in northeast Burlington, are still coping with the service cuts of mid-2012 which have resulted in one hour headways between buses on the #11, #12, and #15 on weekday schedules.
Bfast will be requesting Council defer the proposed fare increases at the March 18 Council meeting and that a process be developed, with public consultation, for future fare adjustments.
