The Simon Tonekham Statesman

 I was reading the press release from the Durham Region Transit website and the press release stated that a number of DRT bus routes are being discontinued or have their hours reduced. The bus routes goes as follows:

Hours Adjusted:
915 Taunton will operate hourly on Saturdays until 22:00 (10:00p.m.)

302 Brock/Brooklin service will terminate at 22:20 (10:20p.m. )

M7 (or 107) Rosebank service will be adjusted to serve Dunbarton High School

4 College Hill/5 Central Park (404 and 405) respectively will be rush-hours only but weekend service will continue

14 (414) Community Bus service will begin at 10:50 on weekdays

Flag Bus 3 service in Pickering weekday and Saturday services reduced from 10:30 to 16:30 (10:30a.m. to 4:30p.m.)

Routes discontinued:

M3 (103) Amberlea (weekday midday and Saturday)

R10/M10 (110) Ajax from Pickering Town Centre to Pickering GO station

M26 (226) Duffins midday service

Source: http://www.durhamregiontransit.com/durham/index.aspx?ArticleID=448〈=en-CA

This was necessary because Durham Region Transit had suffered a $2 Million CDN deficit from their operations since they formed back in January 2006. The Deficit wasn’t revealed when the local newspapers in Durham Region mentioned about DRT’s deficit The R10 and M10 routes were probably the “Victims” of the DRT/GO “One fare anywhere” agreement meaning you can use your DRT ticket, transfer or pass on the GO bus within Durham Region. I’m not sure how the system will work if someone decides to show his/her transit pass, ticket or transfer for travel within Durham only and then pay the remainder (difference) of the GO fare if he/she wants to travel outside Durham.

Adding to that is the success of the $37 CDN per month Access Pass for ODSP recipients, the $1 Million CDN shortfall and the changes in ridership patterns. You can read about this on this link: http://newsdurhamregion.com/news/article/85639

For myself, I always ride on the R10/M10 (110) from the Pickering Town Centre every Saturday (I live in Ajax however) to the flea market. Now, it’s time for me to plan some alternate arrangements – possible take the GO bus to the Ajax GO station and transfer to the 915 Taunton.

In other news, the GTTA (Greater Toronto Transportation Authority) has finally released a new name: Metrolinx. I first read about that in the news today and the reason that the officials want to change that because the GTTA name would confuse the GTAA – the Greater Toronto Airports Authority. As a result, Metrolinx is the new name – but the GTTA remains for legal purposes. Metrolinx will assume responsibility of GO train operations and create a region wide transit plan. I wonder what will happen if the Los Angeles commuter train authority, Metrolink will think about that name change…possibly sue the GTTA for misusing the “Metrolinx” trademark? We’ll have to wait and see.

As for the DRT situation, here’s a line from a song called “Bones Shatter” from my favourite band Hedley:

“We’ll never stop
Cause we’re only getting better
We’re not making this up
So just write another letter
I’ll be fine
Alive again, another day, I’m not afraid to get over
We’ll never stop
Cause we’re only getting better, I’ll be fine.”