Re: We love Transit Tom (June 2).
Not so fast. What is interesting to note is that normally when transit fares are increased by a nickel, transit ridership falls by another million, or more.
Sure, there seems to be more people riding the bus these days due to increased fuel prices. The buses are more crowded than, say, 10 years ago, before the bus fleet became predominantly low-floor, with fewer seats than the previous models.
An estimate of 13,000 more riders is a paltry figure to cheer about though, a number that can't be very precise anyway, given that Winnipeg Transit still uses fareboxes dating from the turn of the 20th century, soon to be replaced with a more accurate electronic version.
This contrasts with other Canadian cities that have rail transit service. I'm positive that if our city had a network of subway lines criss-crossing metropolitan Winnipeg, like that proposed by Norman Wilson back in the day, transit ridership, currently stagnant at 40 million, would more than double in a very short time indeed. One of the side benefits of building a subway for Winnipeg is that our city's population would grow to one million or more, making Winnipeg the truly urban centre it is meant to b