If you didn't know already Norfolk County does have somewhat of a public transit system. One bus actually. http://www.ridenorfolk.ca/
In town rides cost $2 while a trip out of town will set you back $6 each way.
Delhi, Port Dover and Waterford residents can get into Simcoe 2 times a week with this current route. Port Rowan and St Williams residents can get there once. The service currently operates from 8am - 6pm Monday to Friday, holidays excluded. As a means of getting around without a vehicle it appears to be at a reasonable cost to Citizens. The bus is also available for private rentals.
In the 2013 Approved Budget the cost of this service was to be $95,900 but came slightly under budget and in 2014 the Proposed Budget is for the amount of $41,500. The revenue side is expected to bring in $25k but is forecast to come in just over $17k in 2013.
The one bus driver makes $69,700 per year and carries an average of 15 riders per day. In the latest quarter of 2013, ridership levels have increased to over 20. The Federal Government provides a grant of $78,300. A Trilium Grant also pony's up for this service courtesy of the Women's Services. This service is primarily geared toward the senior population. Kudo's to all involved for bringing accessibility to the people who need it.
If we take an easy figure of 20 working days per month times 12 months there would be 240 days of service for a total of 4800 customers (based on 20 per day). $8.65 per customer gross.
If half of those customers did in town trips at $2 and the other half out of town at $6 the income would be around $19,200 per year. $41,500 budget - $19,200 income = $22,300 net cost. There are roughly 63,000 people that call Norfolk home so the cost per year to each Citizen is 35 cents.
You likely lose more money than that in the washing machine.
We know that our Planning and UN-Economical Department is very busy these days but has any one over there ever heard of advertising? With their fat salaries they likely don't take the bus but any transit system that we've ever been on there are these things called 'ad's'. Inside the bus, outside the bus and even on the benches while waiting for the bus. It's a novel concept that businesses in the area want to promote themselves and can do so by paying for what is called 'signs'. We didn't see an 'advertising revenue' line item on the budget so we can only assume that Staff finds it so much easier to suck at the public teat than to do their job. There's a bigger line at that teat than at the bus station that's for sure.
We doubt that County Councilors or Staff have rode on a bus since they were on yellow ones but the largest ridership levels to any transit system are commuters going to work. Unfortunately since you won't arrive in Simcoe until 9am you likely cannot use RIDE Norfolk for that purpose. It wouldn't take much to start a few hours earlier on a regular service to get people to work and back. Considering Delhi has lost one of it's largest employers in Solac Industries which has gone into receivership, we could think of a few people that could use a ride to the Employment Offices in Simcoe or hopefully for new jobs. Using our numbers above it costs roughly $17.29 per hour to operate so you would require 6 more riders to recoup that cost.
Another option that could be considered is a weekend ride to the beaches. We have quite a few beaches and people drive from miles around to get to them so why not give local non-drivers the same opportunity? Port Dover, Turkey Point and Long Point are big draws. You have to pay more to park at TP for the day and Long Point barely has parking anyway. A family pass system could be created and if you wanted to get really crazy it could also be a transit provider for one of the many festivals in Norfolk County. This would take some Planning and unfortunately a Planners Salary is $80,000 per year. This added cost would drive the final nail into a good project.
RIDE Norfolk.
For ways to find the additional capital required to keep this service going, one doesn't have to look far.
A quick glance at the 2014 Budget has these high lights in it :
Filing Cabinet for Health & Safety Inspectors $1,500
Filing Cabinet for County Manager $1,500
3 Office Charis for Finance @ $500 each = $1,500
$1,000 file cabinet for the recreation department.
A $5,000 sparky costume!
$22,000 for security alarm systems in fire halls
$10,000 for a video surveillance system at Waterford Heritage Museum.
$35,000 for the bathroom tear out at the Delhi Admin building to make it a storage room!
The $50,000 forest certification that seems to be an overlap with the LPRCA certification which none of it will matter since the County is priming it's forest holdings in what appears to be the next NCC forest gift program.
We couldn't even find a $1,500 filing cabinet on Staples. The most expensive one they had was $1,029 and we certainly can't expect Staff to sit on any chair under $500 now can we? Maybe someone at County has a friend of a friend of a family member who owns a premium office supply place where everything is sold for top dollar to their favorite customer?
For the record most Alarm Companies offer free installation with their monitoring service. $22k is a ton of money for something that is offered for free. Is this another deal done thru nepotism? Who exactly breaks into a fire station anyway? Maybe we need a study done on it? For a mere $5k we could find out that there was a single break-in at a fire station in all of Ontario but that was the Chief who forgot his keys inside.
That $22k would certainly bring the volunteer fire fighters training up to par in a hurry but why bother, it's only their 'lives' on the line and volunteers line up.
A video system at the Museum could pay back huge dividends one day. A movie could be made about things coming back to life inside of it. Oh hey that's been done. Twice. Late again. Better Plan better next time.
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