Stephen Rees's blog

The following is from Transport 2000 in Ottawa

Last week’s Mayors’ Summit in Ottawa was told by two Ministers, one federal and one provincial “they should not dream up hugely costly public transit systems that municipalities can’t afford to operate” (mentioning rail). The Ministers should take reassurance from the cost performance of such rail operators as GO Transit, Calgary Transit and OC Transpo, reports Harry Gow, President of the Transports Collectifs des Collines.

GO Transit carries 48 million passengers a year of which 85% go by train. It is the cheapest transit system per passenger to operate in North America, with 89.4% cost recovery from the farebox. Calgary pays 25 cents per passenger for operation of its light rail trains, but it pays $1.28 per passenger for buses. Labour costs for Ottawa’s O-Train are about one-sixth of those for enough buses to provide service on the same line of travel, and fuel costs per passenger a third of those for buses of equivalent capacity, Gow reports.

Just thought that those who keep on banging away at the bone headed resistance at the BC MoT might like a bit more ammunition.