(07-12-2016, 11:03 AM)Markster Wrote: ...Is the level of service that ION displaces near the level of a regular service increase for GRT? ION is not going to be bringing in a particularly large (systemwide) bump in ridership, at least not immediately...
Doesn't Ion displace the entire 200 service between Fairview and Conestoga, plus arguably a lot of service by the 7? That would be a lot of capacity.
I don’t think I understand how the buses used on the King corridor could be deployed elsewhere without a big increase in the budget contribution to GRT. Like you say, there will be little new ridership as a result of Ion for a while. If the buses from the King corridor are deployed elsewhere, they will create some new ridership and revenue, but not nearly what they had been doing when running on King. We’re adding the annual cost of Ion to the transit budget, without taking any costs away in terms of buses and labour, and probably not increasing ridership in the short term. Isn’t the outcome of that a big increase to the budget while ridership and revenues flatline?