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economist suntribune around the region thursday jan 24 2002 commuters being wooed more transit routes better offpeak service by jeff mitchell staff writer york region will nearly double its budget for public transit this year as efforts to woo commuters are stepped up new routes new buses and expanded service on major thorough fares are part of the plan for 2002 members of the regions transit com mittee heard last thursday regional works commissioner kees schipper said a year into its mandate to provide public transit york is substantially upping its investment the region will spend 765 mil- lion on york region transit yrt this year a hefty increase of the 2001 expenditure of 415 million the spending is necessary as yrt attempts to attract riders by providing more thorough service to more parts of the region mr schipper said there is a general acknowledgment yrt lags behind transit systems in sim- ilar municipalities and has a- lot of catching up to do in 1999 just 8 per cent of peak hour commuters were using transit those numbers have been improved upon since local transit authorities were amalgamated into yrt in 2001 mr schipper said overall ridership increased to 76 1 million in 2001 from 71 million in 2000it is hoped that number will iincrease to 84 million in 2002 j iris the region goal through improvements to yrt and other initia- rltives to eventually increase ridership on public transit to 33 per cent v you could draw the conclusion we have a way to go to make transit a major player on the transportation scene mr schipper said but- york has dramaticallyincreased suits per capita taxpayer contribution to transit and is about to adopt a fiveyear i plan of action that will greatly increase service he said that ridership ratio has been increasing and its projected to increase substantially in 2002 mr schipper said that indicates to me we are winning that battle it is projected yrt will raise a quar ter of its 765 million budget through fares- while grants development charges and debentures account for another 40 per cent the lions share one- third of the budget is to come from taxes mr schipper said last year our tax levy supported transit tothe tune of 137 millionfthis year thats being increased to 26 mil lion he said but theres no massive increase coming to taxpayers rather the region is able to devote 123 million of existing revenue to its own transit system as a result of the provinces decision to reassume full funding of go transit- major initiatives planned for this year include vservice enhancements to existing routes with a focus on providing serv ice on offpeak hours in the southern part of the region these account for 23million of the budget increase v new services in keswick and holland landingsharon part of a strategy to introduce yrt buses to the regions smaller communities and pro vide links to go transit other new services include links to ttc stations in the south the budget increase is 15 million expansions and improvements to specialized services for the disabled at a cost of 400000 318 million in capital expendi tures including the purchase of 20 new buses and downpayments on others to- be delivered in the future the report recommends harmo nization of fares with other services such as go and the ttc to encourage seamless travel for commuters c pfipl kz rastaffphqtomike barrfett jumpin for glory mi whitchurchstouffvilles lisa zarzeczhy rode kartego during the jokers hill horse show at the york equestrian centre last weekend horse competitions have an advantage oyer sports like ice fishing and baseball theyrepossible ho matter what the season or the weather labour issues hamper york region lire dispatch merger i by jeff mitchell staff writer labour issues should be resolved before i york region merges fire dispatch systems or rthe exercise could be a waste of time accord ing to onefire chief east gwillimbiiry chief ken beckett warned politicians last week just because it appears municipalities are finally on board with the plan doesnt mean unionized workers will be- weve beaten this thing to death since 1989 chief beckett said during thursdays meeting of the regional fire services commit tee the main problems weve encountered have been the labour issues negotiations with the international association of firefighters iaff will be a fundamental part of the process of merging the three existing fire dispatch centres and their employees into one regional service according to a report prepared for the com mittee it is anticipated 10 of 32 existing dis patcher positions will be eliminated six different locals of the iaff represent dispatch staff in markharh richmond hill and vaughan chief beckett said they could scuttle the regions plans i strongly believe we should look after the labour issues first get them out of the way- and then were not wasting our time chief beckett said the region expects to save money by amalgamating the- dispatch centres and locating the new entity in a communications building that will also house the regions 911 emergency call centre chief administrative officer alan wells said its to be built on prop erty in the bales drive industrial park in the south end of east gwillimbury mr wells said the region can save signifi cant amounts of money by equipping one centre rather than three and reducing- staff the centralized dispatch system will require 22 employees 32 fulltime workers now staff the three centres i but no ones going to be laid off as a result of the amalgamation mr wells said politicians agreed to poll municipalities on the concept of centralized dispatch and begin discussions with the union the effort to merge the dispatch services was revived last fall by whitchurch- stouffville mayor wayne emrrierson chair- person of the fire committee he is behind the effort to build consensus on the plan before proceeding i j t v- ii6vwvs iiifiu aai uh4i jv j v