No penalty expected if buses return to York University: Keep York Moving

But operating costs is an impediment

Yorkregion.com
April 10, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Keep York Moving told York Region Media that there is no evidence of a possible major fine if direct YRT buses return to York University’s campus.

Early this year, Keep York Moving filed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to find out if in order to restore YRT bus services, at least for York University students, the cost would be more than $8 million in punitive fees.

This hefty figure was one of the earliest impediments Keep York Moving has faced when trying to negotiate with YRT and regional councillors to bring back the direct buses, whose stoppage earlier this year created a big uproar with at least 17,450 people signing an online petition, YU Ride, to bring the service back.

But after having a look at the TTC-YRT agreement on April 2 at the YRT office, Fred Winegust, who is one of the co-founders of Keep York Moving, said, “No, there was no fine specifically.

“But it did say that they weren’t supposed to put service back to York University once the subway is operational,” he added.

Asked what’s stopping YRT from bringing back the services following the earlier outcry, Winegust said, “It’s the perception of a fine” and changes made to the contract could spell out “operating costs.”

He said the “bigger issue right now” is “uncertainty,” which stems from “the impact of the subway upload that’s being planned,” he said, adding that “the other impact is amalgamation and not knowing how things are going lay out.”

On Jan. 15, the provincial government announced it would be reviewing upper- and lower-tier governments in nine regions, including amalgamation parts of York Region.

Some of the FOI success comes after Winegust, together with Peter Miasek, his Keep York Moving’s counterpart, made two deputations that “generated quite a bit of discussion” to bring to light some new points forward that the committee wasn’t “aware of” on March 7.

Also, what’s lined up for Keep York Moving to keep pushing is a meeting scheduled Wednesday April 10 with York Federation of Students as well as YRT at the university itself.

Keep York Moving has another project in play as it is keen to work with the student federation to analyze its YU Ride petition since about 2,510 of the respondents had a York Region postal code.

“We were able to look at the travel pattern and also how they use transit,” he said.

Winegust wants to do a “series of presentations” with the student federation to “present their findings of the survey.”

Last, but not least, Keep York Moving is still waiting for a provincial response regarding fare integration between Toronto and the region. Fare integration is one of Keep York Moving's motives to bring about in terms of transportation reforms.

But Winegust praised the potential discounted prices announced by Metrolinx for GO Transit in early April that will save riders anywhere from $1 to $3 for distances 10 kilometres or less.

However, those travelling a distance longer than 10 kilometres and using Presto can see an increase in prices of four per cent.

As TTC gets its 10-cent hike but keeps cash fares at $3.25, the Metrolinx Board of Directors will vote on the proposed fare changes on April 10.