Over the last week, city council went into discussions about the C-Train, extending the conversations about profitability and incentivizing ridership.
“Let’s Sell C-Train Merch”, was one of the ideas…
Which is a completely insane conversation, regarding public transit in the city.
Selling Merch is something you do for a team or service you’d be proud of, while for years, we’ve watched this situation get worse…
And to think that they’d be able to sell enough swag to make a difference may only be possible if the city moved to selling flack jackets, pepper spray and tasers.
Other ideas in incentivizing public transport were to extend the length of ride tickets…
But honestly…
When people are more afraid of being on the train or on platforms, the likelihood of this doing anything are slim to none.
I’ve chatted with a number of people in my community - campaigning - about issues of crime in the neighborhoods, ushered in through the C-Train…
A lot of others who have to use the system on a day-to-day basis…
And people are notably afraid.
One of the lady’s I’d spoken with about the ramped up security on trains even commented that she hadn’t seen anybody so much as checking tickets since June of 2024. That’s almost 9 full months, where we can’t even be sure that riders are even bothering to pay for a fare or monthly pass to begin with.
Our community is 2 stops away from the University - making it convenient for students and those employed on campus or in the neighboring community…but given this short ride, an increased cost of living for everybody…one of the first places that people would likely shave a few bucks off of their monthly budget is on simply Not Paying for transit and just chancing that they’d not get a ticket for not having a current fair or pass.
In Calgary, one of the major points of contention between city and province is the extension of the rail system into other communities. Current Mayor and City Council proposing unrealistic budgets on extensions that will never pay for themselves - too short of line with too few new communities and stops added…
But even with this…people who’d cheer on any extension under any budget aren’t seemingly aware of what a little convenience, by way of adding another stop to their community would bring.
Businesses in our community are more than aware of the number of homeless and criminals that use public transport as a means of travelling to populated areas, which ends up in harassing riders, creating an unpleasant experience along with waves of petty thefts from the community, porch pirates, garage break-ins, cars being targeted for anything that’s been temporarily been stored…
In a community post for our Facebook group, there was a Tradesman who’d left his truck open (standard practice), while doing a minor repair, only to come back and find that he’d been robbed of the tools in his truck.
This is what happens when we have a City Council having stupid conversations with unrealistic expectations…
Instead of addressing actual issues with the existing system.
Safety Fails.
Clearly, we need change!
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