I went and checked the numbers. Metrolinx runs on about $2B, of which $800M comes from fares. I cant find a number but i dont think they spend that much on transit cops
Sorry, I was being glib, but the costs of fare collection and enforcement overall typically result in the revenue being essentially nothing. I lived in a Metropolitan Statistical Area in the US which determined about 20 years ago that it had been actually losing money on fare collection for their various transit systems and decided to just do nothing about it.
My understanding is that there are many costs associated with collecting fares, beyond the wages of the enforcement cops. In most (all?) places, the majority of fare revenue just go back to paying for fare collection. Only 20-40% is actual profit.
If transit was free, so many more people would use it, so you can collectivize the loss of profit from taxes and everyone is bettter off. Except for all the people who were employed in the fare collection complex. They will need new jobs.
Fare collection on public transit is an ideological, not financial, necessity.
I went and checked the numbers. Metrolinx runs on about $2B, of which $800M comes from fares. I cant find a number but i dont think they spend that much on transit cops
Sorry, I was being glib, but the costs of fare collection and enforcement overall typically result in the revenue being essentially nothing. I lived in a Metropolitan Statistical Area in the US which determined about 20 years ago that it had been actually losing money on fare collection for their various transit systems and decided to just do nothing about it.
My understanding is that there are many costs associated with collecting fares, beyond the wages of the enforcement cops. In most (all?) places, the majority of fare revenue just go back to paying for fare collection. Only 20-40% is actual profit.
If transit was free, so many more people would use it, so you can collectivize the loss of profit from taxes and everyone is bettter off. Except for all the people who were employed in the fare collection complex. They will need new jobs.
Fare collection on public transit is an ideological, not financial, necessity.