Grand River Transit

[timio]

Don't corporate passes have a photo on them?

Yep.

[chutten]

The photo is to keep it from being transferable.

Which raises the question: how are non-transferable fare products going to be loaded on the EasyGO card? Because if there is no mechanism, then there's no reason to worry about the lack of photo.

And no reason to keep requiring students/other passholders to have their photos taken.

[Viewfromthe42]

Proceeding towards a TTC and GO type system, where the card must only be present on the single rider using it, would be wonderful. I don't think anyone would be inconvenienced by not having their photo on a card, but anyone for whom a monthly pass would become an option were it to be usable by all family members would be a new potential sale.

[MidTowner]

Proceeding towards a TTC and GO type system, where the card must only be present on the single rider using it, would be wonderful. I don't think anyone would be inconvenienced by not having their photo on a card, but anyone for whom a monthly pass would become an option were it to be usable by all family members would be a new potential sale.

Seconded. I've used transit in cities where the card can be used by other riders, and it's great when one person in the family commutes. No need to do the math each month on whether a pass makes sense as a multiple of tickets, since one or the other spouse "might" use it on an evening or weekend once or twice.

[timc]

The photo is to keep it from being transferable.

Which raises the question: how are non-transferable fare products going to be loaded on the EasyGO card? Because if there is no mechanism, then there's no reason to worry about the lack of photo.

And no reason to keep requiring students/other passholders to have their photos taken.

I hadn't even connected those dots in my head. You're right though.

[numberguy]

I don't think transferring EasyGO cards is on GRT's radar. It's so easy to print out fare tickets on a colour printer, as it is.

[rangersfan]

Many bus shelters were damaged overnight by reckless vandalism.

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/mobile/dozen...-1.2603587

[mpd618]

GRT is unionized.   ION is not (so far).    Hence, the branding cannot be unified.   

I don't see how that follows. Pretty sure that with smart card branding, the Region is just trying to minimize confusion while using its extremely limited internal design resources.

[JoeKW]

I didn't know that the bus shelters are owned by advertising companies. That's really interesting, I wonder how that works.

[timio]

I didn't know that the bus shelters are owned by advertising companies. That's really interesting, I wonder how that works.

Advertiser installs and maintains shelters and furniture and gets ad space on them in return.

[insider]

I didn't know that the bus shelters are owned by advertising companies.  That's really interesting, I wonder how that works.

Advertiser installs and maintains shelters and furniture and gets ad space on them in return.

Advertising companies only own the old small bus shelters, any of the new ones with the glass roof are owned and maintained by the Region. They are quite expensive too.

[numberguy]

GRT is unionized.   ION is not (so far).    Hence, the branding cannot be unified.   

I don't see how that follows. Pretty sure that with smart card branding, the Region is just trying to minimize confusion while using its extremely limited internal design resources.

As someone who sits on collective bargaining negotiations, I can attest to the fact that shared branding can be used as a supporting argument to change the status of a workforce before a mediator.

[Pheidippides]

I noticed in the finance agenda for committee this week that GRT ridership is projected to be down again; that would be two years in a row. I'm sure the Record will manage to make a crisis out of it somehow.

"GRT conventional fare revenue YTD is trending 8.6% below 2015 budgeted levels in part due to the decision by the Waterloo Region District School Board to adjust bell times in order to redeploy its own fleet of buses on a second route at the beginning and end of the school day."

http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/region...pdf#page25

[Canard]

The high schools and elemetary schools where I grew up did that. It meant that when I was in high school we went in super early but we're done school at 2:26, which was awesome. It made better use of the hardware available, I think. You can half as many busses that way, just run them more. Free for the parents too, which I'm sure they will appreciate.

[plam]

The high schools and elemetary schools where I grew up did that. It meant that when I was in high school we went in super early but we're done school at 2:26, which was awesome. It made better use of the hardware available, I think. You can half as many busses that way, just run them more. Free for the parents too, which I'm sure they will appreciate.

Unfortunately, it's terrible for the students to start super early, in terms of doing well at school:

http://www.startschoollater.net/whats-the-big-deal.html

There is a movement to get schools to start later.