For years, senior Calgary Transit officials have told the city council it would cost $ 400 million to add turnstiles or other measures to Calgary’s CTrain system to protect those who don’t actually pay a fee.
This figure is said to come from a 2014 study.
CBC News submitted a request for freedom of information to receive the survey. However, no reports responded to the request.
The CBC asked to speak with Calgary Transit’s director general of transportation, Doug Morgan, but the request was denied.
For years, politicians have been asking questions about the potential costs of closing the LRT system to anyone who has not paid a fee for lost revenue from maintaining an honorary payment system.
Transit officials say annual surveys find that only a few percent of the total number of drivers in the system do not pay a fee. They say the cost of upgrading or closing the system for those who do not pay would be significant.
Calgary Transit spokesman Stephen Tauro said the $ 400 million figure is actually approximate.
“This $ 400 million is based on a number of things, mainly our experience with repairing and building stations in the past. The last station was Tuscany in 2014, “Tauro said.
“Roughly speaking, we’re looking at somewhere between $ 5 million and $ 10 million per station, depending on its composition, how it’s developed in the community, and whether there’s already a station building.”
Tauro said the $ 400 million amount to switch to a closed system would not include operating costs, such as a station attendant, as some public transport systems do.
Complete car for Calgary CTtrain. (Lucy Edwardson / CBC)
Asked why employees used this figure, he said there was a “lack of clarity on our part” and that previous studies to avoid the charge showed that closing the system came with a price.
“There’s a lot of work going on in the background. So it’s not necessarily written down on paper, but part of this study looks at what it would cost compared to continuing the honor system.”
count. Dan McLean recently said he supports a closed CTrain system in Calgary as a way to reduce social disorders and that this will help passengers feel more secure.
He said he was disappointed that transit relied on that figure, but did not actually look into the matter.
McLean said he also asked the administration for information on where the assessment came from, but so far nothing has been provided.
“I might not go so far as to say betrayed, but for me that was the reason we closed the issue from the beginning because it was expensive,” the adviser said.
“I would like to see the report because what did that involve?” Did this include a little lighting, was it a turnstile system, or was it glazing in an entire facility, as other cities did? Is it completely closed, partially closed? What is the price of a turnstile on a platform so we can make some decisions. “
count. Courtney Penner does not support a closed system, as she said the money for these facility changes would be better spent on expanding the LRT system or providing better transit services.
She said she had also heard the $ 400 million figure many times. After learning that there were no studies examining the costs of moving to a closed system, she called on the administration to communicate more clearly with the Calgary.
“It’s my own fault, isn’t it, that I didn’t ask for it either, and I took the administration to their word that a special study had been done and that this was work that we all needed to do to improve,” Penner said.
“I think this one fell through the cracks,” Gondek said
On Wednesday, Mayor Joti Gondek said the council often relies on information from the administration to make decisions.
“We have long believed that there is this legend to study, which shows that it would be $ 400 million to install turnstiles. Obviously this is not something. It was just an estimate at one point. So I’m digging into finding out if it’s really just an assessment, “she said.
Moving on, Gondek said one of two things would happen and she hoped it would be the first.
“That is, this administration has realized that if you are going to give us numbers, you need to make sure that they are backed up by empirical evidence. The second thing would be that from now on the council will forever want to report before we believe anything. And I would like to think that we are in a more advanced society than that, “she said.
“There have been many, many times when we have received information as soon as we have requested it. It has been backed up by reports and data. I think that has failed and I hope it will not happen again.”
Last month, Transit Director Sharon Fleming told councilors that a consultant would be hired later this year to address the closed system.
The city wants to study the feasibility of implementing a closed system, to study the impact on the customer experience, as well as how this can affect accessibility and communities near stations.
Completion of this study is expected to cost up to $ 100,000.
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