Quote:
Originally Posted by Gordon
I think the 1 zone fare is fairly competitive with other cities.
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It is.
But I think the monthly passes are all screwed up.
In Toronto, on the TTC a ticket is $2.75, good for the whole TTC system. That is comparable in price to our 1 zone but way less if you figure the average ticket sold is probably a 2 zone. But a monthly pass in Toronto is $109! Here a 1 zone is $73. If you again say our average (1 zones + 2 zones + 3 zones / total) is around a 2 zone pass, the 2 zone pass is $99. Cheaper than Toronto.
Using Translink "savings" calculation, of 20 return trips a month (the basic commuting pattern), then in Toronto if you only take the Subway to and from work (20 * 2 * $2.75 = $110)
you are saving $1 by getting a monthly pass!!!! In Vancouver you save $27 off average commuting.
In Toronto you can buy 10 tokens at a time, which works out to $2.25/token, so the comparison is then 20*2*$2.25 = $90. So if all you are doing is commuting to and from work in Toronto, then buying a monthly pass is a
waste of money as you lose $19 a month (the equivalent of 8.4 tokens). Here, when compared to fare savers, a monthly pass is still worth it by saving $3 off the faresaver price.
In Toronto, the monthly pass is priced for people who use the pass outside of commuting. It is priced for people who use transit often to get around. You buy a monthly pass if you are making a lot of extra trips.
Here, you buy the Monthly pass and save, almost no mater what. You can ride the heck out of our system and you aren't paying for it, in Toronto you do.
In Vancouver, our fares can come down if we started charging way more for monthly passes, which we should. If all you are doing is 20 round trips a month to and from work, then it should be priced so that fare savers are your best option.
Monthly passes should be for people who use the system all the time. It should be priced for condo dwellers who forgo paying for a car because the 1 zone pass takes them anywhere they want (after 6:30), and in a reasonable amount of time because of frequency and service levels in Vancouver proper. It's not balanced. We end up with a system where a large group of riders need to be subsidized by vehicle levies and bridge tolls and high fares on other riders. All so people in Vancouver can get virtually free transit.