Metro Transit is planning to significantly reduce ferry service, effective May 21. The changes are:
Alderney
Service reduced to every 30 minutes from noon to 2:00pm on weekdays; remove service after 10:30pm on weekdays and Saturdays, and before 11:30am on Sundays.
This ferry route does not meet Service Standard of 390 passengers per hour in the peak direction during weekday daytime hours, or 290 passengers per hour in the peak direction during weekday evenings and weekends.
Reduction of 870 annual service hours.Woodside
Remove last morning trip departing Woodside and return trip (9:37am and 9:52am).
This ferry route does not meet Service Standard of 390 passengers per hour in the peak direction during weekday daytime hours.
This trip would be reinstated when construction of the new conventional ferry is completed, it is anticipated that all day service would improve ridership during this time period.
Reduction of 130 annual service hours.
The changes were announced quietly on Metro Transit’s web page, apparently after The Coast began making enquiries. Transit employees were only told of the changes this morning last week.
Metro Transit’s PR department did not immediately return a call for comment.
This article appears in Apr 19-25, 2012.
Metro transit, the best transit in the country!
This management/union dynamic has left us with this steaming pile of shit, Metro Transit, and then there’s our impotent council who don’t know which was is up – this isn’t helping the situation.
Before Metro Transit cuts anything they should be doing a system wide audit not just of routes that exist but for potential changes and realignments to make it more efficient.
Ten buses on Portland Street all driving the same route until the last five blocks isn’t good planning. And now they want to chop ferry service. Fuck
If anything this just reinforces why there should be a private ferry service in this city.
As far as I’m concerned the serious questions about Metro Transit management’s competence during the strike are still valid open questions that no one at council wants to touch.
When will we have a board of concerned citizens and actual transit riders – unlike these fucking cunts who run this gong show of transit in this city – that can lend some credibility to their decision making process?
And as far as the poll question is concerned:
“Yes. Not enough people were using late night ferries, so we should spend the money on better-used bus routes”
You do realize ONLY ONE BUS MAKES MONEY right?
The number 1.
Every other route would have to be chopped to save money if we were to rely on Metro Transit to do the thinking on this issue.
How do these people stay in their job? Who is Metro Transit ACTUALLY accountable to??
Can you blame it on the strike? Is Metro Transit trying to get the money back it cost to get the contract signed? No that would be silly. My question is when does the price hike come because that is what is needed. I enjoy a late night trip across the harbor and have taken countless pictures of the cityview at night from the ferry. If given the choice I would prefer a small fair increase instead of the decrease in service. Or make a substantial increase in the cost of a cash fare like to $3.00 but only make a small raise in prices on monthly passes like 15% or something.Oh wait… Metro Transit is a heavily subsided mess and my idea would certainly increase monthly pass sales but that in turn could raise ridership levels Would that be good or would that make things worse. I’m not sure but what I am sure of is that there must be better solutions to our transit issues then to decrease the service. I got an idea give me the job of running Metro Transit. I am not university educated and do not have any degrees. In fact I have absoluty no experience what so ever needed to run the job. But with all that said I figure I couldn’t do any worse then what is being done now.
Stop throwing money into routes that will never be profitable due to the crappy design of our suburbs. For example: Dartmouth Crossing is low density and car-oriented enough that it will NEVER turn a profit like the #1. The developer designed it this way, and I don’t think the city should be pouring funds into the route developed to service that ridiculous sprawling mess.
Short term solution: stop putting so much focus into suburban expansion. If people choose to live in such a grotesquely autocentric area, well, they’d better have a car.
Long term solution: Place controls on developers so suburban expansion is conducive to the development of a financially sustainable transit system: in other words, develop a bit denser, more like European or Japanese suburbs.