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By DEREK COOMBER Special to the Beaver Transit watchâ€"dog group wants fee hikes quashed Town council should roll back its April Fools Day 16% fare hike, firstâ€" ever GO user charges and service cuts on Oakville Transit, urges a Torontoâ€" based transport evaluation group. The Display your products during this funâ€"filled day indoors at the Glen Abbey Rec Centre! The first annual Oakwville Beaver Family Show will feature entertainment and events for everyone from toddlers to _ grandparents! Call your Oakville Beaver advertising rep today to find out how your business will benefit from your participation! INFORMATION CALL K# $A5â€"3824 Oakville‘s Awardâ€"Winning Community Newspaper AKVILLE BEAVER | provinciallyâ€"funded Better Transportation Coalition argues that the package will lead to rider alienâ€" ation and collapse of municipal bus services. "It‘s a price demand spiral," said the coalition‘s principal spokesman Gord Perks in a Beaver interview. "If you keep increasing the price and decreasing the services, then eventualâ€" ly people will stop using the service." Other financing should be used, he says. The higher transit fares and service changes are due to take effect April 1st. Boxâ€"paid bus fares rise by 25¢ to $1.75; GO train riders will have to stump up 25¢ each way to the station and offâ€"peak services between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. on five of the transit‘s 14 routes will be chopped to once an hour. Subsidy payments in 1994 for the 43% of bus riders who are GO users will be $1.30 each ride, up from $1.10, admitted Oakville‘s manager of transit operations, Bill Akkermans, at a River Oaks meeting last week (Thurs.) called to explain a new comâ€" bined night service on routes 19 and 20 for north Oakville. In addition, the town receives a provincial grant of 22 1/2% as an operational cost subsidy, Akkermans explained during a twoâ€"hour Beaver interview, which included a tour of the Wyecroft Road depot that houses and maintains the town‘s current fleet of 38 vehicles, none of which are airâ€" conditioned and one dates back to 1972. Asked at the sparselyâ€"attended River Oaks meeting about the controâ€" versial appointment of an $80,000 Transit Director soon, Akkermans declined to comment. But he denied that a modest facelift and decoration at Wyecroft Road, which is just being completed at a cost rumored $500,000, saying it was only $175,000. Transit has 79 drivers out of 98 staff. In response to questions about risâ€" ing fares and service cuts being the primary factors which cause riders to quit bus services, Akkermans said, "There is a 7% decrease in passengers when fares increase. But we gradually get them back, you can see it in the fare box receipts. Over a period of time, they gradually return." However, River Oaks resident, Julian Sellars, who attended with his commuting wife Sue, remained unconvinced afterwards that the transit changes will not hit user figures. "It‘s what we usually get â€" less and less for more and more. The council only seems to be driven by ecoâ€" nomics, just saying cut isn‘t the answer," said Sellars. He also thought it is important that Oakville Transit should be attempting to develop more leisure and offâ€"peak use of its service, not cutting them and growth potential. Fare rises were not the answer. "Fare levels are already top high compared to its competitor â€" the price of gasoline. We have the lowest real gas price in 20 years and the increasâ€" ing variety of different autos has added to their attraction. On the other hand, there has been very little done to modernize and change public transâ€" port vehicles." Gord Perks put more succinctly, "A city of 100,000 that cannot support a good public transit service is doing something wrong," he commented. Oakville Transit fares have risen almost sixfold since 1972, when the town‘s service was started with 10 vehicles and 35 drivers. Akkermans said the fare was 30¢ back then. However, at $1.75, the new fare will be almost 9 times the offâ€"peak 20¢ Active Lock Safe Co. [ | 2380 Speers Rd. 24 Hour Emergency Service Offer valid to OQakville Beaver "Shop Locally" card holders [Service Through Experience **15% off any Purchase excluding labour (applies to residential work only) fare of 1972. The transit abandoned the offâ€"peak fare in 1978, when it was 35¢ and only 5¢ cheaper than the regâ€" ular fare. Perks warmns council and the public that continually raising fares and reducing services is a formula which leads to collapse of public transport services, as has been found in many of the leading U.S. cities. "If Oakville Transit collapses, it‘s going to cost Oakville big money; they‘d better not forget that," he said. Perks suggested that council should consider a zone system of fares, with a low fare charged for short journeys, which has been successful elsewhere and in Europe. It should also look at setting up a transit line of credit, as the TTC has done for $18â€" million and expects to easily repay the debt from rider revenues as the recesâ€" sion fades. The BTC spokesperson said that resulting road widening schemes to prevent traffic congestion from increased car traffic, plus the need for more parking, would add significantly to costs to taxpayers. He pointed out that a section‘of arterial road could either carry 600 people in autos or 18,000 people an hour by â€"public transit and that ultiâ€" mately growing communities such as Oakville would have to face that fact. It was also a dangerous environmental decision to continue to let auto users not pay the full costs of their journeys. While Oakville Transit may have been lucky historically in not suffering major passenger losses, Perks‘ colâ€" league Shannon Thompson pointed to the Toronto Transit‘s loss of 80 milâ€" lion trips between 1988 and 1993. At least half of the lost trips had been due to rising fares and fewer services. Council Budget Committee chairâ€" person Kathy Graham said that there had been a lot of discussion about "user fees" in committee and council, but in the end council had voted 6â€"5 to implement the 25¢ GO user charge. "Transit users are a major conâ€" sumer group, yet they are unrepresentâ€" ed in the community," argued Perks. She was personally in favor of the coâ€"called Beltâ€"Loop bus service which would have operated across the Smithâ€"Triller Viaduct on a circular route connecting River Oaks to the town, but as the River Oaks meeting was told, it had been voted down. Any plan to get the fare hikes and service cuts halted would need a 9 votesâ€"inâ€"favor mandate at council now, she said.