Quote:
Originally Posted by Acajack
Looking at the map of OC Transpo's services (especially the rural ones) I've often wondered what the cost is of running buses all the way to out to places like Carlsbad Springs, because they're technically "in the city" and it's "owed to them", I guess. Though I admit to having no idea if it's actually that big a drain on OC Transpo's budget.
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The way OC Transpo is financed, the city's portion of the cost (aka the net amount after fare revenue and provincial subsidies) is financed through a series of special tax charges dedicated to OC Transpo, rather than the city's general revenues.
The city is divided into 3 areas:
-The "Urban Transit Area", the urban area of the city
-The "Rural Transit Area A", rural part of former Cumberland Township along with Richmond, Munster, and Manotick, the areas that have peak period bus routes
-The "Rural Transit Area B", the rest of the city (West Carleton, and Rideau-Goulbourn and Osgoode minus Richmond, Munster, and Manotick), the areas that have no fixed transit routes.
The cost of providing paratransit service (which is available to the whole city) is collectively charged to all 3 areas, while the net cost of providing rural bus routes (the cost of running them, minus fare revenue from those areas, minus their per-capita share of provincial subsidies) is collectively charged to properties in Rural Transit Area A. The remainder of OC Transpo's net costs are collectively charged to properties in the Urban Transit Area.
So the rural areas of the city that receive transit service pay the real cost of providing that service. It's actually lower than the cost in the city, because the rural routes only have a handful of peak period trips. The Rural routes used to have a special fare premium, about $20 a month more than a suburban express pass and about $1 more per cash ride. In 2012, they eliminated this premium and then raised the transit tax in Rural Transit Area A to make up the difference.
IMHO, this system is kind of unfair, because Rural residents can still drive inside the UTA and take a park and ride bus, which they aren't paying for. A portion of the cost of urban transit service should be applied to both rural transit areas to reflect this.