my precious time keeps slipping past

Get ready for an increase to your transit fares.

Translink has got be joking when they say that 95% of people support the increases to fares – which will bring the cost of a 3 zone ticket up to $5.

When they commissioned Ipsos-Reid to poll for them, the questions they asked were around whether people agreed that services needed to be expanded and improved. Duh! Um, yes? After having hacked the transit system to bits, making stops so far apart that people with mobility issues couldn’t even get to their stop and go out to get groceries any more, Translink now wants to know if people would like some services that actually help them get around the city. We would also like HandyDart services brought back – in a way that actually *helps* people with disabilities and elderly people to live their lives and participate in their communities.

Yes, yes we would.

Would we like you to impose further financial hardship on the members of society with the least money and who are the most vulnerable?… uh, no thanks.

Many of you may know that social service programs, things like social assistance and disability, used to provide transit tickets or transit passes to individuals accessing their services. They recognized that transportation was a major barrier for people who were living in poverty. It is no longer the case that any transit subsidy is provided.

Arghh. It just pisses me off that the media is trying to make the people who attended the Translink meetings (in order to stop the over 6% fare increases) look like they are in the minority. They are not.

Transit improvement, I am for it.

Transit fare increase, I am against it.