you could help improve your service with two simple additions….
1) you have these new fancy money taking devices that many other cities have. It is amazing that people can still toss in a handful a coins and claim it is $2 since you haven’t actually utilized the machines. They actually count the money in other cities. A beep signifies that someone has put in the correct change. Surely you know you are short changed about 1/3 of the time.
2) change your transfer set up to make taking buses more attractive. Many cities have altered the way they use transfers and do not care if you are going back return on the same bus or not. They stipulate you have 90 minutes to use that transer. As it stands how, paying four bucks really isnt enticing people to want to go to the mall.
Please make better use of our tax dollars.
This article appears in May 1-7, 2008.
New fare boxes are part of the just-passed capital plan for Metro Transit. They’ll be coming in, next year I think. They’re actually quite expensive, but as you point out, they pay for themselves over time. They’ll track pass usage and transfers too, which will help in planning, supposedly.
They dont need new ones. The ones they have are the EXACT same model used in London Ontario. It is simple programming of the current ones, (and adding of an interchangble component) that would make the ones they have perfect for what the OP suggests.
They don’t care about their service. They are (a) a govt agency and (b) a militant union shop. So they don’t give a shit about anything except their own self-preservation. Surely that must be obvious given their consistently poor performance.
Hopefully the upgraded fareboxes don’t turn into the nightmare similar to the one at the STM in Montreal. Dozens of buses each day get changed-off mid-route due to jambing up of the ticket and coin slots. The driver can only do so much and when it stops working he/she isn’t exactly allowed to collect the fares in a coffee cup. So what happens on routes with frequent service is the out of service sign goes up and the driver simply does drop offs so he/she can get to the end of the route to meet a mechanic who gives him another bus or fixes the farebox. Thats a lot of extra time spent on non-critical problems and broken down buses sit untouched in the garages.
Ex-haligonian….the fareboxes they have now, are the EXACT same ones they used in my old hometown. The breakdown rate would be the same now, as the boxes they currently have, do not need to be replaced. I have meant to look up the name of the company that manufactures that thing. Its initials are on that little square under the bell accepter.Basically this city’s transit that has a million computers, but stores all its information in file cabinets.
what is up with this shit….. words have gone missing from one post…. and another post, posted itself twice.
I almost always daydream when I am on the bus and I don’t have a book or someone to talk to. It invariably leads from the drafts of Letters of protest to Metro Transit, to an action I would want to call the “Penny Protest”. Making sure I would put them in the Fare box slow enough to NOT jam them up. I don’t want to damage the property. Just Slow it down a little. If that Muppet in the drivers seat gave me any grief about the 200 pennies, I could shrug my shoulders and say “Hey, times are tough and I have a bunch of pennies and am in need of some bus fare? What am I supposed to do? At least I am putting them in slow so they don’t jam up the little machine.”It’s tempting.
Homie – I should have explained a bit more. The first generation of electronic STM fareboxes worked great then the second and third batches came in with what seemed to be inferior components. I’d assume the manufacturer found a cheaper source for internal components and ordered them in. I’m familiar with the newer MT boxes on the buses in Halifax and they seem to be decent quality, until the manufacturer finds a way to build em cheaper.Daniel – your protest will do nothing but piss off fellow passengers, especially those who are late getting to work or miss their transfer connections. Use a bit of common sense, the driver won’t care that you dropped 200 pennies into the fare box and nor will the folks in the revenue office as the change gets dumped into a mechanical sorter/wrapper. The only one you’ll piss off is other passengers.
The problem with monopoly transit systems… no need to change because there is no competition.I just wish they would introduce 2 or 3 all-night bus routes… it would cut down on drunk driving for sure.
yes ex…. that was it…MT. They are the ones that they use here and in my old hometown. I found it funny they dont beep here. So i looked further, but there is an LED thing facing the driver on the buses, that they dont use. There is a peice that is removed off the front (and you can see where it is) that shows the passenger exactly how much coin they have put in, and beeps when it gets to $2. That beep is tone that lets the driver know that the person has put in a bus ticket or the correct change. The ripping off that goes on now, would be a big and welcome change.Having all night buses in theory is a great idea, as you figure it would reduce drunk driving……. but actually it did nothing to change that rate in the other Canadian cities that have them. Instead people that decided this was some sorta genius idea, didnt think of the obvious problem it creates. It creates an easier way to make vicitims of muggings and robberies. Nothing easier than camping out at a well lit bus stop, that you know is going to drop off some easy preyed drunk chicks. Overnight buses, horrible idea if you cant defend yourself. Not saying that it will happen to everyone, but history of the cities that have overnight bus routes can show, they arent safe, for the driver, or the passenger once they get off the bus.
there is no such thing as a “monopoly” transit system. I cant think of a single city that has more than one transit company. Toronto has 2, but that is a technicality as each route that connects with the city, extends WELL outside the GTA. It also doesnt have regular interval stops. It only stops at stations and major transfer points. One doesnt truly appreciate the difficulty there is in making an entire city happy with transit. When i moved here and took a part time job doing surveys on the buses, many of the routes that travelled after 9pm, would have maybe one or two people on the bus for an entire completion of a route. When you caluclate cost of fuel, driver wage:money generated per hour….. most routes turn a significant loss. While they do make up that money during the day on other routes, truth is you can be the only customer a driver sees after 9pm……. for days. It isnt like they can park the bus just cause no one is on it. It isnt like the driver will do this for free. People should really look into a transit system and see all the difficulties they go into to make an entire city happy. For each simple band-aid suggestion that someone tosses out, they do so without thinking of the costs that go with such an implementation, and do so without thinking of ways to cover that cost.
I don’t think night service is too much to ask for in Halifax. I did some research when working in Montreal and discovered their night service was started partially because the ‘transit employee’ shuttles were costing money yet not open to the public. Metro Transit runs an employee coach before and after each workday. Great idea except the first out (AM) and last in (PM) drivers can’t make good use of a bus that won’t fit their schedule.A couple of modified transit routes running from midnight – 6am could offer new service to the public needing to get around and still accomodate the transit staff. Of course the union would prefer the drivers not have to deal with the public when travelling to/from their work assignments, the shit hit the fan when the 52 became the new metro transit shuttle and the drivers realised they would be sharing a bus with…. ewwww… the public. Same thing happened years ago when the #26 was opened to the public. It was hard to explain to those in Highfield Park why they saw a mostly empty bus running up and down the route and the public wasn’t permitted on board.The city needs to get ahold of the transit system and take it back from the union bullies, most of whom could care less about the passengers’ needs.
what are your thoughts about the violence factor? Did you happen to have any facts about that in the studies good sir?
Well violence has occured to Metro Transit staff during the day and night so I can’t see it being worse on an overnight shift. Transit management can’t control what goes on outside the bus or off their properties but can certainly take measures to control what occurs aboard the buses – do like Fredericton & Saint John have done when running the student “club” buses and have a security guard, municipal cop or another transit staffer ride along with the driver. Or go as far as the Trudeau Airport did with their parking lot shuttles (full size transit buses btw), install digital video equipment and have someone watch the footage when a driver pushes the panic button or files an incident report upon the end of his/her shift. The cameras there could be watched online from airport offices and the bus company’s offices without the driver or passsengers knowing.The STM night buses are routed to avoid the most dangerous places and pretty much stick to high traffic, well lit roadways except for a couple of the routes which travel through deserted industrial sectors enroute to the newer transit garages. The buses are also equipped with destination signs and attention seeking lighting that is activated by a driver’s panic button. The signs display alternating messages: “POLICE” & “911” and red arrows light up to point at that message. The outside clearance lights also flash to get attention.Drivers could refuse to take on night service if they felt it made for dangerous working conditions under the labour act and then Metro Transit would have two options – forget about night service altogether or contract-out this service to a private operator. The union couldn’t say much about contracting out if their members refuse to work those shifts.
i was more referring to the violence to passengers upon departing the buses. The actual bus ride itself isnt going to be much worse, but it makes for easier victims fro muggings and robberies. I know Toronto has had quite a few issues with this. Now, people might say you cant compare the two cities, but actually this city has a much higher violent crime rate than that city….. so you can compare.anything in your studies on that portion of the violence? I would love it if you had links to some of this stuff you are telling us as i find it SO informative. Nothing better than ingesting new knowledge about something you know a little about, but cant find out more about.
Homie – I wish I had online sources where I could send you to look into the issue. My personal examinations into the pros/cons of night and transit violence in Montreal were a mix of conversations with drivers, union reps and transit inspectors who told of their experiences and I also sifted through library microfilm newspaper archives to read up on incidents and the on-going expansion of daytime and nighttime routes. Hate to say it but transit operations can’t be responsable for people’s safety when outside of buses (transit terminals excepted), the police department is responsable for street patrols. You have the same chance of being assaulted at a bus stop at night as you would if walking home in places where night buses don’t run and you can’t afford to take a cab to your door. The criminal doesn’t care whether you are at a bus stop or walking along the sidewalk. But more traffic (ie. buses and transit inspectors) that night service brings might be a deterent to those looking to victimize people waiting at a bus stop.
i would agree with that… but they said the same thing with overnight convience stores, and gas stations, and the robberies went up with over night service
I think the TTC offers to drop women off at non-bus stop locations late at night on certain routes to address the safety issues.
Yes Miles the TTC offers that service as do most larger transit operations. Montreal and it’s surrounding cities such as Laval, then Ottawa and Halifax also offer the between stop program. Halifax is different that its not just for women, probably due to the lovely crime rate 🙂