Last spring Regina Transit, in response to a petition requesting expanded service on Sundays (when buses typically run hourly from 11 a.m.-6 p.m.) and stat holidays (when there's no service at all) to make it easier for transit users to do stuff like go to work/church and attend special holiday events, announced plans to extend service on Sundays (no mention was made of holidays) so that buses ran from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. At the same time it announced a fare increase (adult jumped from $2.10 a ride to $2.25).
The fare hike was instituted Aug. 1. Today, our office received a fax from Regina Transit announcing its intention to begin expanded Sunday service on Aug. 30. Oh good, I thought. But then I read this:
In order to better serve riders' needs and provide extended hours without significant budget impact, service was redesigned resulting in removal of service from limited areas of the city. Sunday service will operate on 11 routes. Only three of those routes will be the same as on weekdays. The Sunday routes were designed to provide service to as many of the religious buildings, shopping areas and activity centres as possible. This means walk distances to the bus stop may be longer in some instances. Where changes to routes have been made, bus stops will also indicate whether there will be no Sunday service at a particular stop and some new signs will be installed for Sunday service only.
What it boils down to is that instead of 18 routes, there will be 11. They'll have different names than existing routes, and their own numbering system (901 through 912). And the bus routes themselves, except for three, will all be different--sometimes radically so -- from the routes people ordinarily ride Monday-Saturday.
Uh yeah, right. I cycle for transportation as much as I can, but for a good four months of the year I rely heavily on Regina Transit for getting around, and I wholeheartedly support it as a service vital to any notion of Regina being a modern and progressive city. And this is a pathetic joke. Way to make transit use safer, more convenient and user-friendly. Yes granny, we'll give you Sunday service. Only thing is, you may have to walk a bit further to catch your bus. Yeah, it's icy in the winter. And cold too. And it gets dark early. And buses only run once an hour. So make sure you leave yourself plenty of time to make it to the stop (heh-heh).
I don't blame Regina Transit. That phrase in the first sentence "without significant budget impact" says it all. Regina Transit doesn't control its own purse strings. It works with the money it has.
I can't wait to see what the petition organizers will have to say about this.
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6 comments:
I will be interested to see the new Sunday schedules.
One thing of interest in recuding from 18 routes is that several of those are mirrors of each other ; the same damn route but in the opposite direction. Examples: 7/9, 10/12, and 3/4 (I think).
There HAS to be a smarter and more efficient way. Where I live it takes the same amount of time to get downtown whether you take the 10, its mirror the 12, or walk to grab the 7 or the 9. What is that amount of time you ask? 40-45 minutes. Seriously. This town is NOT THAT BIG, it should NOT TAKE THAT LONG. I'd be willing to bet that you could shorten most routes, saving some diesel and some ride time, while still covering the same areas just as well as they are covered now. But let's not forget that some areas are not covered AT ALL. And don't even get me started on the lack of service to the industrial area, where one or two people work in this town. If this city had an efficient bus system, I would still be a part of a one-car family, but instead I have two. I cannot be alone in this... there have to be more people who would take the bus but don't because they can't afford to lose an extra hour or more with their family every day.
I don't get the bus system here; it has been the same cycle for years: fares go up, while service and efficiency go down. I can understand that the transit system has a small budget.... but I cannot understand the poor planning that goes into the way that the routes are drawn. There is double, triple, even quadruple coverage for some areas of town that do not need it and also do not benefit from any of the 4 buses that go there because they all still take forever to get to the same places.... while at the same time there is NO SERVICE AT ALL to some parts of town that are heavily populated (ironically, one of those is Woodland Grove, which has a bus route named after it).
Oh, the new routes are here:
http://www.regina.ca/Page2145.aspx
Click on "new Sunday Bus Schedules" and get ready to be confused!
Yep, they suck. I hope all you folks that work at the downtown shops on Sundays are prepared to get up an extra 30 to 60 minutes earlier.
As an example of how this service will operate, on Sundays in the winter I take #11 bus from downtown to visit my aunt at a care home on Pasqua St. and Regina Ave. At present, the bus goes right by the care home. It's the same when I leave, #13 goes right by there and delivers me downtown. Under the "expanded" Sunday service, buses start running earlier, and go a little later, but the closest one will deliver me to the care home is Regina Ave. and Elphinstone St. I can manage the 7 or 8 block walk well enough, but what about people (mostly women) who work there and rely on the bus, or elderly spouses and siblings of residents who use the bus to visit. It seems to me that they're SOL
But if the buses worked fewer people would need to buy cars. Think of the dealerships!
I rode the bus a couple of times when in town and was disheartened at the inefficiency of the routes and schedule. Was somewhat amused to see advertising inside the bus bragging that Regina Transit's website is "available 24/7". PRIORITIES.
I looked at the Sunday routes, and they simply have to keep the weekday routes, and pay the extra money, and run them every day of the week for more people to take them up. And have more stations that have direct buses that go all the way across town without going downtown.
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