Transit All to Hell

Everybody who was clamoring for another Winnipeg Transit fare hike that will bring no accompanying increase in quality, technology, accessibility or service -- put your hands up with pride! Your city is serving you!

Our Mayor is quoted as saying that the bulk of the hike will go to a rapid transit reserve fund; this likely means that they'll bankroll just enough to budget for another task force on the subject, then laugh and have us keep riding the same candy corn clunkers we started off with.

That's just a guess, of course. I mean, I'm basing this guess on the past precedents of every Winnipeg Transit fare hike in recent memory -- but maybe we'll get lucky and I'll be wrong about it this time!

"Rapid Transit reserve fund", sure. I doubt he even made it all the way through that statement without chuckling a little, and the rest of the room probably chuckled with him. Sam Katz is no more enthusiastic about rapid transit than I am about leaving rapid transit in the hands of Sam Katz.

We weren't told that the money will pay for more drivers, or for more buses to be put on the road; we weren't told that the money will go to buying articulated buses; we weren't even told that the money will be used to construct a transit building that's actually big enough to hold articulated buses. We will be expected to pay more money for each bus ride so that the money can be put somewhere completely inaccessible to save up for rapid transit plans that we don't have and won't make.

Not to worry, though! This proposed motion hasn't been approved yet; surely the inevitable unpleasant reaction from the public and the strong opposition of our city councillors will keep the unpopular and ill advised idea from succeeding, just like they did against the police advisory b... like they did against the renewal of the red light camera contr... just like they did ag...





I'm going to go to bed and try to forget that I ever looked at the news. In retrospect I probably should have known better.