Metro Transit responds to commuter concerns

Planning and development manager Eddie Robar says Metro Transit is the 68th largest transit provider in North America. (Photo by Jonathan Charleton)

By Jonathan Charleton

After talking to Haligonians who use transit, we took three common complaints to Metro Transit. We talked with Eddie Robar, manager of planning and development, Dave Reage, project delivery coordinator, and Amy Power, supervisor of scheduling and planning. Here’s a recap of our conversation.

Commuter concern: Buses don’t run often enough. They can’t accommodate rush hour commuters, nor can they accommodate shift workers who need service in the early morning or late at night.

Metro Transit responds: “It’s very challenging,” says Robar. “No doubt we’re always behind the 8-ball. Right now the ridership grows fast enough that you can’t keep up with it.”

Metro Transit has seen a large increase in demand. In 2002 it provided 400,000 hours of service. By last year that number had risen to 733,000. Robar and Reage attribute this to people’s desire to be green, the recession, limited downtown parking, higher insurance costs and higher gas prices.

On average, Metro Transit carries 93,000 people on a weekday and 65,000 on Saturdays and Sundays, says Robar.

“When you compare Halifax to some of our comparison cities like London, Ont., Brampton, places that are somewhat similar population, we actually come out on top in terms of the number of buses we have, the amount of service on the road,” says Reage.

On average, transit only recovers 52 per cent of its costs – labour, maintenance, fuel – from fares. The rest comes from the municipality.                As the number of people on a bus declines, so does its fare revenue. Ultimately, an early morning bus would end up mostly paid for by taxpayers, says Robar.

That being said, Route 1 is under consideration to have earlier runs on Sunday mornings, says Power.

Commuter concern: When ferries are under repair, it affects the ferry schedule. Crossings are reduced from 15-minute intervals in peak hours to 30-minute intervals, which is inconvenient, and furthermore, Woodside crossings don’t continue late enough in the day.

Metro Transit concern: Metro Transit hired a new subcontractor to a three-year contract to do ferry maintenance. This year that company finished maintenance in two months, the fastest time in eight years. This means the reduced schedule won’t last as long.

Metro Transit also plans to build a fourth ferry that will be assigned to the Woodside route. That will mean more crossings in peak hours and possibly later service. Metro Transit hopes to have it in the water by 2014.

“Because it’s a unique vessel we’re designing, from scratch more or less, you can’t just go and buy one off the shelf. You have to have a very lengthy design, building certification process to get it done,” says Reage

Commuter concern: GoTime is useless. It only tells you scheduled departure times, not when a bus will actually be there.

Metro Transit responds: Metro Transit installed GPS on all of its vehicles. It hopes to have GoTime running in real time later this year.

“Transit is a very unique environment and (GoTime) has had to be tailored specifically to our services, so it’s taken a little longer than we thought it would,” says Reage.