Treat Youngsters Like Youngsters OC Transpo
How are the Toronto Blue Jays different from OC Transpo? Countless ways no doubt.
The obvious one is that the Rogers Centre, the home of the Jays, is full night after night. That’s not easy when some tickets are going for $237 a pop. On the other hand, OC Transpo is selling its adult fares for $4 or $4:05 using cash.
The Rogers Centre is full despite the fact you can watch the games for free on television. No Dan and Buck covering OC Transpo buses. The buses aren’t full.
However, the Blue Jays have a good product to sell, not a bad asset, while OC Transpo gives you a ride-duration special. Sometimes the volume discount on the buses and trains is four hours a day of commuting entertainment. Volume yes. Quality … well … no.
But here is the critical point. Junior Jays Sundays. The ball team treats kids like kings and queens. Fun games to play. Plastic slides and things to get rid of some of that excess energy. Face painting (with Blue Jays logos). And the youngsters after the game get to run the bases free. Imagine the thrill of running the bases where your heroes played just a few minutes before.
The Blue Jays see youngsters as an investment. They don’t make any money off Junior Jays Sundays. The team does this for the game experience. Those youngsters are the ball team’s future ticket-buyers. Build loyalty when the kids are impressionable. Make them Blue Jays fans.
At OC Transpo in a money-saving measure, it eliminates youth fares. Now there’s a good way to turn off young riders. It’s not like the kids are rich … at least most of them. Turn the youngsters off OC Transpo. Now riders less than 10 years old get on Transpo free. At 11 and 12 they get a discounted fare. That’s great, but charging a 13-year-old a full adult fare? Just think. In three more years they’ll be driving their parents’ car. Wonder what choice they will make? Short-term thinking for long-term loss.
The Blue Jays have full houses because they invest in the future. OC Transpo is unwilling to look past its gruesome bottom line today. The future? Forget it.
Now we’re not suggesting the that 11-year-olds for the thrill drive buses on Sundays in an effort to increase ridership over the years. But why not treat youngsters like youngsters. They’ve lots of time to learn the reality of adulthood in their older years.
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One somewhat related point. When will Mayor Mark Sutcliffe hold his friend Ontario Premier Doug Ford accountable for the Tories’ election promise to have Metrolinx take over OC Transpo’s trains? It’s a $3-billion saving and Metrolinx, flawed as it is, can’t do a worse job of running the rail than the City of Ottawa and OC Transpo.
Ken Gray
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The full ride youth fare is a behind the back dig at getting more money out of the province. A lot of those youth fares are going to be covered by the various school boards and OSTA which is funded by the province. If Council can’t get money out of the province for OCT with a direct ask, go behind the scenes and do it.
It is exactly as Nicholas has said. This is a back door tax on taxpayers who have to fund the 5 million dollar increase in school board transportation costs through the increased school taxes. Many students take OC transpo to school and have free passes provided by the school boards. This is effectively another back door tax on us. There are lots of these. For example as Mike Patton pointed out, the city hall has harvested all of the revenue from Hydro Ottawa over the past 15 years which is over 250 million dollars. And now Hydro is doubling our distribution costs in order to fund infrastructure costs. I’m wondering how much the Hydro Ottawa dividend to the city will increase with this doubling of distribution costs?
As noted above, “At OC Transpo in a money-saving measure, it eliminates youth fares. Now there’s a good way to turn off young riders. It’s not like the kids are rich”. Don’t forget that many kids’ fares are being paid by mom and dad so current adult customers is another group that is likely also unhappy. Let’s give OC Transpo credit for going whole hog.