I’m in possession of a copy of DRT’s 2008 Servicing and Financing Study, which is the key DRT report feeding into the Region’s 2008 budget process. It covers the entirety of DRT’s service plans for this year, as well as providing a great deal of information into plans for future years. Note that this study has not been approved by Council yet, so there is always the possibility that some elements may change.
In fact, there is so information in the study that it is impossible to cover it all in one post, so I will break it up into a series of posts covering the facts, and then follow that up with analysis.
I’ll begin with the items that are of the most immediate interest – fares, service cuts, and new bus orders. I’ll follow up in future posts with information on ridership, future service improvements starting next year, and BRT information.
Fares
Fares will be going up effective July 1.
- Adult cash fare to $2.85, monthly pass to $95.00, 10 tickets to $25.75
- Senior cash fare to $1.85, monthly pass to $38.00, 10 tickets to $17.50
- Student-restricted cash fare to $2.65, monthly pass to $67.00, 10 tickets to $23.75
- Student-unrestricted cash fare to $2.65, monthly pass to $80.00, 10 tickets to $23.75
- Child cash fare to $1.85, monthly pass to $56.50, 10 tickets to $17.50
- GO Transit Co-fare is unchanged at $0.65, $25 for a pass and $6.25 for 10 tickets
- Access pass rises to $38.00 from $37.00
- Specialized services rises from $2.75 to $2.85.
The good news here is that the budget proposes that last year’s trial DDSB bus pass program be made permanent, albeit with an increase to $43.00 per monthly pass. The same fare will apply to the other boards. For high school students, this is clearly the way to go.
2008 Service Changes
The sole service increase this year is that rush hour service on 915 Taunton goes to 15 minute headways from 20 minute headways (in other words, an extra bus per hour) in March in order to ease overcrowding. All other service improvements are deferred.
In March, further cuts will be implemented:
- 501 Liberty ends at 7:45pm weekdays
- 916 Rossland goes to 30 minute offpeak headways from 20 minutes, hourly after 7:30 pm, ends at 10:00pm. Saturday headways go to hourly and ends at 10pm.
- 915 Taunton goes to 30 minute headways offpeak from 20 minutes, hourly after 7:30 pm, ends at 10 pm.
- 8 Stevenson, 11 Grandview, 12 Adelaide – weekdays and Saturdays service will end at 10 pm.
- 4 College Hill will lose Sunday service
- 25 Audley North and 35 Puckrin will have their rush hour services combined for a more direct routing
- 21 Townline will go to hourly service from 9 am to 10 pm.
In July, 1 Simcoe will go to 30 minute headways while school is out.
Fleet Renewal
DRT will order 14 new D40LF buses (identical the models ordered the past two years) this year, which are expected to be delivered in summertime. Twelve of these are intended to replace older equipment, while two are for fleet expansion. In addition, a new flag bus will be ordered (note that DRT is still awaiting delivery of the one ordered last year, so two new flag buses are coming in total). Two specialized services buses will be ordered, and 7 buses will undergo major refurbishment.
In 2009, 22 new conventional buses will be ordered (12 for fleet expansion, 10 to replace older equipment), 5 specialized services buses (1 expansion, 4 replacement), and 2 flag buses (1 expansion, 1 replacement).
When DRT began in 2006, the average age of its fleet was over 13 years. In 2008, this average age will drop below 9 years, and the average should reach 7 years in 2010.
Analysis
There’s not much to say here – we knew that further cuts were coming, and now we have the details. I’m happy to see some fleet renewal continuing this year, and a fare hike was probably predictable given increased costs (mostly fuel) resulting in DRT’s budget going up by 10% this year.
Having said all of that, 2008 is shaping up to be a lost year for DRT riders, and that’s disappointing. There is lots of interesting stuff being worked on for future years, including the BRT implementation, but in terms of “on the ground” service that riders will see this year, it’s going to be disappointing.
I’ll cover DRT’s budget situation in more details in future posts, but I have a better sense now of the situation. Not only have fuel prices increased considerably, but DRT has to pay off last year’s deficit. Further, the province is providing less support for new bus orders this year, so the Region has to cover a larger portion of the costs. Finally, there are significant costs this year in preparation for getting the Presto card implementation up and running in 2009/10.
I’ll reserve my final comments on this situation for when I cover the budget as a whole, but I do understand the constraints that they are under. It would have been very hard to propose a 10% property tax increase – that simply would not have flown with the majority of residents, and so DRT is busy consolidating things this year in preparation for better things to come starting next year.
It is good to see the improvement on the 915 Taunton. Reducing the rush hour headway from 20 to 15 minutes makes sense. In the past many of the buses were full going to and from Durham College. This resulted in passengers being left at the bus stop to wait for the next available bus.
The sad part is the mid day service being reduced. Along Taunton in Ajax and Whitby there is a housing construction boom going on. If the service is not there when the residents move in they will seek out other means of transportation. It will be difficult to draw them back later on.