City of Gatineau Transit - the STO

City of Gatineau busses - what is the real cost?

A lot of people seem to think public transit is an affordable means of transportation. I think that the bus service in Gatineau (and many other cities) are starting to get out of hand price-wise.

To start with, the "Express" service from Gatineau to Ottawa is actually quite good. The major flaw that I can see is that some routes have been diverted off the surface streets with bus lanes onto the highways 5 and 50, contributing to the gridlock (more about that in another post). That being said, lets look at the cost of taking the bus in Gatineau.

As of today, a bus pass costs $69.00 of a city pass and $84.50 for an "Express" pass.

In addition, a portion of your annual municipal (property) taxes go directly to support Gatineau Transit (the STO). Last year, for me, it was $1000.

So the total for the year? Bus passes for me and my wife $169 x 12 months = $2028
STO portion of property taxes = $1000
Total = $3028

Total km per day = 16km
Average work year: 240 days

$3028 / 16km / 240 / 2 riders = $0.39 per km per adult.

UPDATE: Both my wife an I have changed jobs and now work in Gatineau proper. Bussing is no longer an option because in order to get to work (6km travel) I would have to take 2 busses and then walk 15 minutes. For my wife, there is an Express that would take her to work in the morning (8km), but the Express does not pass her workplace in the evening (thats right, the same bus takes a different route in the morning and afternoon), so it's 2 busses and a 20 minute walk to get home, or 3 busses from a tranfer spot past our area.

But I still have to give STO $1000 a year for a service I can't realistically use, even if I wanted!

Time for Gatineau Transit to revisit their public transit mangement plan.