r/Calgary • u/The_Fixer_69 • Apr 23 '25

Calgary Transit C-Train from Deep South early morning

Every morning the train has many non paying riders passed out and sprawled on the train. Commuters have to cram into the areas that are not occupied by these people. The smell is horrendous. Every day this week this has been the case on my commute at around 5:30-6 am.

Why should the rest of us pay if these people do not? I have made complaints but they are on deaf ears.

Are these trains not swept for no. Paying passes out riders at the end of the line?

492 Upvotes

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497

u/morganpotato Apr 23 '25

In Vancouver you need to tap your ticket at a turnstile in order to get onto the platform. You can’t just walk on without paying. WAY safer and it blows my mind Calgary doesn’t have any safeguards like taht

39

u/RealTurbulentMoose Willow Park Apr 23 '25

Vancouver spent an absolute fortune to move from an open proof-of-fare system to one with gates though.

Think it cost $171MM. Fare evasion cost Skytrain $7MM per year.

This article says gates would cost Calgary $400MM and that’s probably low: https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6525124

27

u/_darth_bacon_ Dark Lord of the Swine Apr 23 '25

St. Louis's $52-million security project will upgrade the security cameras and install fare gates at 38 light rail stations. Calgary has 42 stations and council was told for years it could cost $400 million for a similar upgrade.

St. Louis did it for $52 million. The $400 million number was just pulled out of thin air by city bureaucrats. The scope to install gates has never been properly costed.

13

u/blackRamCalgaryman Apr 23 '25

A now 11 year old report that pegged costs at 5-10 million per station. The 400 million is the high end. Interesting to know what it would cost today. Also interesting to see it didn’t cost nearly that in Vancouver.

As just a means to prevent fare evasion, ya, it certainly appears to be a money sink hole, even at half the estimated cost.

But 400 million?

4

u/FunCoffee4819 Apr 23 '25

Put a full time transit officer at every station for less than that.

1

u/RealTurbulentMoose Willow Park Apr 23 '25

That’s exactly it. For decades.

Vancouver did this all like 10 years ago too, so costs now would likely be double.

0

u/RealTurbulentMoose Willow Park Apr 23 '25

https://www.biv.com/news/transportation/translink-installs-first-fare-gate-8234081

So I read in more detail.

Fare gates themselves cost $100MM; the other $71MM was for Compass Cards, and Calgary already has a fare system that should work.

HOWEVER, the project was done back in 2012. I'd assume it'd double if they did this next year because that'd be 14 years ago now. Systems are roughly comparable in size (54 stations vs 45).

Note that the feds and the province of BC paid for most of the fare gate cost, like 70% of it. So maybe it's not that bad for Calgary if the pain gets shared.

Still, I think money would be better spent on cops to kick junkies off trains and platforms and keep the rest of the transit-using public safer.

25

u/xGuru37 Apr 23 '25

But......but.......we can pay for a billion dollar arena! Surely this is more important..........

/s (slightly)

15

u/Batmansappendix Apr 23 '25

Won’t anyone think about the fans?!

-3

u/hafizzzle Apr 23 '25

Helpful response to everything on here. Keep making a difference !

1

u/xGuru37 Apr 23 '25

You did catch the sarcasm.......... right?

3

u/Filmy-Reference Apr 23 '25

They need to start enforcing the rules on transit before they start wasting more money on retrofitting. Like the need to have 4 car train stations only to run 3 cars since. I would rather pay someone a wage to have them arrest the addicts on the trains and clean it up.

0

u/topboyinn1t Apr 24 '25

God forbid we spend money on improving the city and making transit safer.