Calgary Transit orders 40 Nova LFS buses

Nova Bus announced it has been awarded a two-year contract by Calgary Transit with the possibility of extending the agreement for a further three years. In the first year, 40 Nova LFS buses are scheduled for delivery.

With a fleet of almost 1,000 buses providing 95.3 million rides annually on 168 routes, Calgary Transit is a significant new partner for Nova Bus and will help consolidate the company's growing presence in Western Canada.

The vehicles will be used to both grow their fleet and replace aging, less fuel-efficient buses, enabling Calgary Transit to provide enhanced service to the community.

Calgary Transit orders 40 Nova LFS buses - News - METRO Magazine.

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Oshawa six must allow transit depot to be expanded

Oshawa councillors taking a hard stand on a new bus depot in the city should reverse their position to save a project very much needed in the municipality that motovates the Region.

At stake is the spending of millions of dollars in a city hit hard by the recent recession. Metrolinx, the body appointed by the Province to oversee massive transit improvements in the Greater Toronto Area, has offered Durham Region $83 million to get moving on a rapid bus transit project along Hwy. 2. As part of that plan, the Region wants to build two bus depots in the east and west ends of the region at a cost of $25 million each.

In the west, Ajax has offered up land for the depot at a price of $1 per year. For that amount, they will see new construction and new jobs in the town.

The story is a little different in Oshawa. The Region wants the bus depot to be expanded at the current location on Raleigh Avenue but six of the City's 11 councillors are asking for a little more rent than Ajax requested. Oshawa councillors want $440,000 a year in rent, a figure the Region is balking at. Regional Chairman Roger Anderson has made it very clear that if the rent isn't $1, it will look in either Whitby or Clarington for the depot.

The six councillors are using the depot as a carrot to persuade the Region to back off an $8.6-million legal claim against Oshawa to help pay for employee pensions and benefits for transit employees. In 2006, transit systems were uploaded to the Region and the Region claims the $8.6 million is owed. The City counters the Region is now responsible for transit and it should bear those costs.

That fight will likely end up in the courts and should not in any way derail the expansion of the new depot, which will bring $115,000 a year in tax revenue, new construction jobs and new employees to operate the facility.

Councillor Nester Pidwerbecki, who is also vice-chairman of Durham Transit, is the voice of reason in all this when he notes it would be a real blow to Oshawa if it lost this deal because of a conflict over the $8.6 million.

He's right. Unless Oshawa council acts now, the city could lose this long-term project. The repercussions could affect the entire Region by delaying the rapid transit project if a site other than the existing Oshawa depot has to be found. Rezoning requests and public meetings could drag the project on for some time.

We urge Oshawa council to rethink its position and make it clear to the Region the two issues can be dealt with separately for the greater good of the community at large.

newsdurhamregion.com | Oshawa six must allow transit depot to be expanded.

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Oshawa stands to lose $25-million transit depot

An Oshawa councillor says squabbling between the City of Oshawa and the Region of Durham could see Oshawa lose out on a $25-million transit depot and the jobs and tax revenue that would come with it.

Oshawa Regional Councillor Nester Pidwerbecki, who is also vice-chairman of Durham Region Transit, says the project could go to Whitby or Clarington, if Oshawa doesn't extend an olive branch.

"It would be a real blow to Oshawa if we lost this deal because people are being foolish," he said. "Other municipalities seem to be able to do things by the book, why can't Oshawa?"

At the root of the issue is a disagreement between Oshawa and the Region, over "unfunded liabilities."

In 2006, municipalities across Durham uploaded their individual public transit systems to the Region, creating an amalgamated system. Now, the Region is looking to Oshawa for $8.6 million to cover things such as employee pensions and benefits -- costs, the City argues, that should be the Region's responsibility now.

At the same time, the Region received an $82.3-million provincial grant as part of the Hwy. 2 bus rapid transit project.

The plan is to spend $25 million of that updating and expanding the existing transit depot on Raleigh Avenue in south Oshawa and build another depot in Ajax.

Ajax has already agreed to lease land to the Region for $1 a year and Oshawa was expected to follow suit -- until the debate over liabilities started. Now, the City is using that as leverage.

At its Nov. 9 meeting, Oshawa council passed a motion from Councillor Brian Nicholson that gives the Region an ultimatum: drop the fight for the $8.6 million and pay $1 a year to lease the depot property, or else pay market value for the land, about $440,000 a year or $10 million over the 25-year lease term.

Coun. Nicholson said his motion lets everyone walk away happy.

"If you want $10 million in free rent, give up your $9 million claim. Or, pursue your claim and pay for the property, I think that's fair," he said. "If they expect us to give them the $10 million in free rent and still pursue the other $9 million, that's a potential loss to Oshawa taxpayers of $19 million. I don't know how any councillor could justify that."

Regional Chairman Roger Anderson said there is a deadline to spend the provincial cash. If Oshawa won't work with the Region, he said other locations will be considered.

"We're adamant that they have to give the land to us for $1, we will not rent that property at market value," he said. "(Regional) staff have been instructed to start looking for sites. They are looking for land that is serviced and ready to go ... we know Clarington has some. Oshawa Mayor John Gray said Oshawa stands to lose $115,000 a year in tax revenue, and jobs, if the depot goes elsewhere.

"We're also going to be stuck with a vacant, derelict building on a brownfield site," he said. "Members of council are playing poker with this issue, and we're going to end up being the losers."

The motion from Oshawa council will be dealt with by the Region's finance committee on Dec. 9.

newsdurhamregion.com | Oshawa stands to lose $25-million transit depot.

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Green License Plates in Ontario

Ontario has a plan that, by 2020, 1 of every 20 cars on the road should be an electric vehicle. To encourage drives to adopt hybrids and electric vehicles, a new license plate is being offered for green vehicles.

Vehicles bearing the new plates will be eligible for a number of special perks, including use of recharging stations and special parking spaces. But the most compelling benefit the new plates will offer is allowing vehicles to use carpool lanes, even if there's just one person in the vehicle. The carpool lane benefit extends until 2015.

In the past, when other municipalities and government agencies have allowed benefits like this, the value of the perk has sometimes been as much as several thousand dollars on vehicle resales. This is another way to encourage matters in order to reach a goal like 5% hybrid or electric vehicles in little more than a decade.

Green License Plates in Ontario Come with Priviledges.

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GTA transit fare card test begins

A small number of Greater Toronto Area commuters are getting their first taste of a smart fare card that will allow them to navigate the region's myriad transit systems.

Seventy-five riders from the GTA began using the Presto card on Monday as part of a pilot project initiated by Metrolinx, the regional transit agency.

The credit-card sized pass is machine-readable and reloadable and will eventually work on all public transportation in the Greater Toronto Area.

Users can load money onto the cards online, by phone or at participating stations.

Those currently enrolled in the pilot project can use their cards at three GO Transit stations — Union, Oakville, and Bronte. Some Oakville Transit buses are also equipped to read the Presto card.

The only Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) station that takes the card is Union, although the program will be expanded to include other major stations in the coming months.
Reader deducts fare automatically

The vice-president of policy and planning of Metrolinx said using the card is easy.

"So you arrive at the station, you tap on to a little register," Leslie Woo told CBC News. "It deducts automatically from your card that you registered with a certain amount of money … and you're on your way and that's it. No transfers, no metal, no paper."

In the next three weeks, 500 people will begin testing the Presto Card, Woo said.

The program will be steadily expanded over the next few months to include a number of stations and transit agencies.

Coming by Spring 2010:

* Oakville Transit.
* Burlington Transit.
* GO's Lakeshore West Georgetown and Milton rail lines.
* TTC's Bloor/Yonge College, Dundas, Queen’s Park, St. George, St. Patrick stations.

Coming by Fall 2010:

* Mississauga transit.
* Brampton transit.
* GO Transit's Lakeshore East, Barrie and Richmond Hill GO rail lines and bus routes.
* Hamilton Street Railway.
* TTC's Kipling and Islington stations

By the winter of 2011:

* Durham Region Transit
* York Region Transit
* GO Transit's Stouffville GO Rail line and all remaining GO Bus routes
* The TTC's Don Mills, Downsview and Finch Subway stations.

Ottawa's OC Transpo system is also expected to begin using the card system by the winter of 2011. The province has awarded a $250-million 10-year contract to management consultant company Accenture to design and implement the Presto card system.

CBC News - Toronto - GTA transit fare card test begins.

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Transit strike cost city government $5.9M, auditor finds

Ottawa's public transit strike wasn't just bad for the pocketbooks of the city's transit employees. It was also costly for the city administration, with $5.9 million in direct costs, according to an audit released Wednesday.

The audit report found that wage and fuel savings were more than offset by lost pass and ticket revenue. City council gave transit riders generous deals to entice them back to transit after the 58-day stoppage of service.

But the city also had increased costs, such as $558,000 for increased snow removal, $362,000 for increased security and $400,000 to compensate colleges and universities to operate shuttle services.

The city initially said it was saving about $3 million a week during the strike.

The auditor wasn't looking at the cost of the 53-day strike to citizens and businesses, which were estimated to be in the millions of dollars each day.

Transit strike cost city government $5.9M, auditor finds.

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Token Hoarding & Smartcards

Ontario’s new smartcard fare card will eliminate the token hoarding that is currently besieging the TTC, councillors acknowledged yesterday, yet the region’s biggest transit network will be the last in the province to get it.

The province’s PRESTO card goes live next week for the first 500 customers at two Oakville GO Stations. Those passengers will also be able to initially swipe their way through two turnstiles at Toronto’s Union Station, with a bigger rollout in May.

But Toronto passengers will likely have to wait until at least 2012 or 2013 for pre-loaded smartcards because the Toronto Transit Commission only gave PRESTO conditional approval last week, joining GO Transit, Oakville, Mississauga, York Region, Durham Region Brampton, Hamilton, Burlington – even Ottawa.

“Everybody else made a decision to go ahead in 2006 and TTC is making a decision in 2009 and so clearly that’s the reason why they’re last,” said David Smith, director of program services at PRESTO, which is overseen by provincially mandated regional transportation authority Metrolinx. “We’re very pleased with that decision and we’ll work with them as hard as we can to get them rolled out so that both the people who live in the 905 who use the TTC and all the residents of Toronto can enjoy the benefits of the PRESTO card.”

Since it announced a 25-cent fare hike effective Jan. 3, the TTC has faced a run on tokens, forcing it to first limit the number of tokens available to each customer and finally spend $50,000 printing 10 million temporary tickets for December as its token stores were depleted.

The TTC estimates it could lose $5-million from token hoarding.

Councillor Peter Milczyn (Etobicoke Lakeshore) said the whole debacle would have been avoided if the TTC had a less archaic fare system.

“With a smartcard system you could literally, practically overnight, change the fares. The next day it would deduct a different amount from your fare card. So there’d be no issue of hoarding tokens or anything else for that matter,” he said. “We have a fare system that others back in the ‘70s started going to magnetic tickets and things like that and probably since the ‘70s we’ve been somewhat behind.”

It would also offer the ability to load the card online, to pay with a credit card, and to register the card in case of theft or loss.

But Mr. Milczyn defended the TTC’s hesitancy to jump on board PRESTO. A report to the commission last week outlined significant costs as a chief concern. The province has agreed to bankroll $140-million of the start-up costs, in addition to installing PRESTO readers at 12 subways stations what will be part of a pilot.

But the report warned the true costs of implementation for the TTC could be as high as $417-million.

Councillor Joe Mihevc (St. Paul’s), vice chair of the TTC, said the commission has to tread carefully.

“We cannot make this something where the TTC loses money and we need to be able to control certain pieces,” he said. “If we want to introduce fare by distance or a discount for students or seniors or to offer off-peak lower fares, we need to be able to set those rules. We can’t have a third party set them for us.”

Mr. Mihevc said the costs meant implementing smartcard technology was not a priority for the TTC until recently.

“We have an integrated system whereby many of the buses and the streetcars go right into subway stations, therefore not requiring transfers, and our turnstile technology is pretty good and works just fine, it wasn’t in need of replacement. It wasn’t something that was on the TTC’s horizon” he said. “We had enough state of good repair issues to deal with 10 years ago when public transit money was really tight. So we decided our public transit system was working very fine, thank you very much, we’ll consider this at a later date. Now it’s that later date.”

Read more: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/toronto/archive/2009/11/24/token-hoarding-not-if-ttc-had-joined-smartcard-plans.aspx#ixzz0XrYRQNf6

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Transit improvements eyed for Uxbridge

Public transit use in north Durham has been an incredible success since its launch, and the buses connecting northern residents to the rest of the region are running at full capacity, Uxbridge councillors heard Monday evening.

While presenting an update on Durham Region Transit's long-term transit strategy, Phil Meagher told Uxbridge's civic leaders the current service is certainly being utilized by residents looking to travel across the region.

"It's at capacity, it's one of the most successful launches we've had and it's been very successful," said Mr. Meagher, Durham transit's deputy general manager of operations.

The 950 route has two buses daily which run at capacity, connecting Scugog and Uxbridge residents to Durham College and UOIT, he explained.

"We're running at capacity through the whole day," said Mr. Meagher. "It's pretty steady ... throughout the day, it's being used."

And, in about 20 years time, Uxbridge residents can look forward to further transit improvements, added Mr. Meagher.

According to the DRT deputy general manager, the regional transit provider is eyeing an extension of the Lincolnville GO Train route to Uxbridge, and more GO Bus service and increased connections to areas such as Port Perry and Stouffville.

Cycling facilities are also proposed in the transit strategy plan, which is looking to 2031 and beyond.

In the south end of Durham, transit officials are looking towards introducing rapid transit in the lakeshore communities.

"A lot of activity will take place in the south, but there will be a lot of improvements and changes for Brock, Uxbridge and Scugog," said Mr. Meagher.

When quizzed by councillors about the potential cost for all the upgrades, the deputy general manager replied the transit authority plans to seek funding from the Province and federal government once the study is complete.

He also noted there is no firm time frame to bring GO Train service to Uxbridge, stressing the plan is looking beyond 2031.

It's expected a draft copy of the transit study will be presented to Regional council in December, with a final report due on Feb. 15, said Mr. Meagher.

The document will be completed by March, he added.

newsdurhamregion.com | Transit improvements eyed for Uxbridge.

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Transit union leader blasts Metro News for insulting cartoon

TORONTO, Nov. 19 /CNW/ - An editorial cartoon on the front page of the November 18 Toronto edition of Metro, a widely distributed daily commuter news digest, has drawn the ire of the president of Toronto's transit workers union.

The cartoon depicts a streetcar operator leaning out of his window with his hand in the pocket of a startled pedestrian reading a newspaper with the headline "Rate increase."

"Fare increases are always accompanied by a large spike in verbal and physical assaults on vehicle Operators and Collectors," says Bob Kinnear, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113. "Passengers angered by having to pay more to ride the TTC take out their frustration on the front line workers, not on TTC management or the Commissioners.

"This insulting cartoon makes it seem that the workers are to blame for the fare increase. It will provoke active animosity in some unbalanced passengers and lead to more assaults. We've been down this road too many times before to let this pass."

Kinnear says it is grossly unfair to attribute the magnitude of fare increases over the past decade to TTC workers.

"With this latest increase, TTC cash fares since 1999 will have risen 64% faster than the wages paid to Operators and Collectors. Angry passengers should be incensed at the failure of governments to support Toronto public transit at the level enjoyed by other cities. They shouldn't be taking it out on our members, who provide a great service under often very stressful and demanding conditions."

TTC management's recent presentation to the Commissioners on the need for a fare increase revealed that the TTC is the least subsidized transit system in North America.

"If the TTC received proportionately as much public funding per rider as Montreal, Vancouver or Edmonton, our fares would be much, much lower. If we received as high a per-rider subsidy as they do in Los Angeles, the TTC would be free to riders," said Kinnear.

"The cartoon would have been more truthful if it had shown Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty and Prime Minister Stephen Harper picking the pockets of our passengers."

"We believe in freedom of the press," added Kinnear, "but we have the right to strenuously object to a 'McPaper' like Metro distorting the truth at the expense of our members' safety."

AMALGAMATED TRANSIT UNION, LOCAL 113 | Transit union leader blasts Metro News for insulting cartoon that will provoke assaults on TTC staff.

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