If the ridership doesn't grow substantially with the Kingston hub, they'd be in trouble maintaining service, since they can't use TOM traffic to prop them up anymore. Ergo, why catering service to those who actually have jobs makes sense. Students and Army privates are far less schedule sensitive.
And it’s a retirement community, and seniors are not time sensitive. But I don’t know why you turn up your nose at the senior/student trade. All public transit - local, GO, and VIA - derive a huge ridership from this segment. Until Amazon moved into town, York University was Brampton Transit’s best customer. And while lots happens online, better linkage of universities for exchange use of labs, libraries, symposiums, etc. is both good for educators and good business for VIA.
By your logic, trimming VIA’s lesser but solid-performing stations and focussing solely on the HFr corridor bodes poorly for service to other University towns like Windsor, London, and Kitchener.
I’m eager to see the business plan, and to hear whether this route falls within HFR’s promise of “no subsidy”. You seem to agree with a point I have been making for a while....the Kingston Hub, even if exploited aggressively, may not run in the black..What is Ottawa’s reaction to that? Does the CIB accept the onus to cross subsidise from HFR net income?
When VIA made its much-cited trip to the Kingston Mayor, I doubt they said, “Look, the revenue we can make linking the Metro’s is so lucrative, we can afford to kick Kingston to the curb”. (Although they may have said this to the Minister, with cabinet privilege attached). What the Mayor reported will obviously take a happier tone. But I would not oversell the hub as value added, beyond the extended time of day options it offers.
While we have removed some topics to another thread, this thread should not be limited to only boosting HFR or rail serving the Big-Four Metro’s.. It’s fair to discuss how VIA should service the sub-HFR communities in Ontario-Quebec and what it will take to do that. I would hope that VIA is aiming to retain a mandate for that second tier service, and addressing the barriers to doing so effectively and economically.
- Paul