Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Public initiatives: Preserve route 245

A group of Manotick-area residents are rallying to preserve service of route 245, a rural express route which serves the area, from being cut by Ottawa city council. From the Ottawa Citizen:
During budget deliberations late last month, Rideau-Goulbourn Councillor Glenn Brooks moved that the No. 245 be cancelled because it delivers only four rides a day. Cutting it would reduce the rural transit budget by $27,700. At the time, OC Transpo officials confirmed that the route was little used.
The movement is similar to one which grew out of 2008's budget deliberations, "Keep the 23", where Chapel Hill South residents rallied to save route 23 from being cut. They were ultimately successful.

Andrew Geraghty, who's behind the campaign, started a Facebook group called "My Ottawa includes all of Ward 21 Rideau Goulbourn", and started a petition to gain the attention of city council. His work has gotten the issue onto the March 1, 2010 meeting of the city's transit committee. It remains to be seen whether or not they will successfully preserve the route.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Route 245 must go.

There is no sensible rationale for the economic folly of this rural spur, the operational statistics are truly appalling.

A taxpayer subsidy of $25,700, for 1000 annual trips, amounting to an estimated 4 trips per day works out to a staggering $25.70 per trip.

At an average of 20.8 service days per month, the rider's $131.75 monthly bus pass equates to a fare box user fee of $3.17 per ride...

This means that a ride on 245 demands a 650% subsidization from municipal taxation.

The route being cut goes only from the south end of Manotick to North Gower.

Environmentally, running a full size city bus over this small stretch, propelling two riders with 1.4km per litre diesel engine, is a recipe for both egregious fuel economy and air pollution.

It's kind of hard to figure any configuration of vehicle/driver that would be cost efficient for 2 passengers between a couple of neighboring rural villages, but a city bus certainly isn't it.

Only a farm tractor, main battle tank, or taxiing aircraft would be worse.

Anonymous said...

To quote the Ottawa Citizen "If Glenn Brooks is leading you in one direction, it's usually wise to head in the other..." http://bit.ly/a8nQgp

It will take a vote of council to change the transit rate charged to residents in this area to RTA-B and such a vote won’t be requested until December of 2010 to be applied in 2011. Adding insult to
injury, residents were enjoined to feel good about the "savings" of $27,500 that cutting Route 245 would bring—even though it amounts to less than 0.01% of OC Transpo’s annual operating budget. Also, residents in the catchment area
of Route 245 will still be paying the RTA-A rate for 2010 whether Route 245 is cancelled or not. It has even been suggested that residents as close as the Carleton Golf and Yatch Club will continue to pay post cancellation.

Cancelling this route is a mistake on OC part. Councillor Brooks needs to face the fact that time has moved on, amalgamation is behind us and we are one City. And public transit is for all.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who really cares about the environment and transit in Ottawa should seriously reconsider promoting route 245, a short 15 kilometer hop, south of Manotick.

According to OC Transpo figures, it costs the taxpayer $25.70 each to get wto people from North Gower to Manotick in the morning, and the same amount for the return trip.

The full size city bus used for these two passengers only gets at best 1.4 kilometers per litre of diesel fuel, so 43 litres are used per day.

Each of the two passengers releases 29 kg of CO2 greenhouse gases on the way in, and the same back.

This is 425% more than the equivalent trip in a four wheel drive Hummer H3.

Dwight Williams said...

Considering the development push in Manotick that got rammed down City Council's throats via the Ontario Municipal Board last year, this is one route that's going to have to be restored sooner than later anyway.

himself said...

This means that a ride on 245 demands a 650% subsidization from municipal taxation.

How can subsidization exceed 100%?

Anonymous said...

Dwight, take a look at the 245 route map.

The Manotick sprawl development is at the corner of Century Road and Rideau Valley North. This is where 245 will now end, so service to the subdivision is not affected.

To "himself", the tax subsidy per ride is approximately 6.5 times higher than the cost of the trip covered by a rider's bus pass.

Actually, the subsidy factor is actually higher if the rider transfers to another route.