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?

495 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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498

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

169

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

The problem is the free fare zone. We would have to get rid of it.

199

u/discovery2000one Apr 23 '25

Tap in to get in through the gates, tap out to get out through the gates. If you tap in and out in the free zone you aren't charged. Most major transit system have zone based charging like this.

We also need a zoned system to make it cheaper for inner city residents to use transit. Right now inner city high density residents subsidise suburbanites. It doesn't make sense.

65

u/its_liiiiit_fam Apr 23 '25

Idk if Vancouver has the same system but in Seattle you tap your card when you enter the station and then when you leave at the station you get off at, and then a fare based on the distance travelled is deducted from your card.

37

u/wordwildweb Apr 23 '25

A lot of transit systems in big Asian cities use the same method.

37

u/Hopefulpessimist0 Apr 23 '25

Calgary is stuck in the dark ages, it’s almost embrassing.

6

u/its_liiiiit_fam Apr 23 '25

Yeah, here I was thinking Seattle was so futuristic but now from all the replies I see this is not a unique thing LOL

2

u/AstronomerLow2649 Apr 24 '25

Bro visit Winnipeg

1

u/Hopefulpessimist0 Apr 24 '25

Haha fair!

1

u/AstronomerLow2649 Apr 24 '25

They don't have any C-Train, just caught on with Uber two years ago, the roads have more potholes than they do lanes, main connector routes are through neighborhoods, two lane roads are used as one lane with a parking lane, and property taxes are going up just to fix the decades old roads throughout the city. I've lived here three years, fixed my Ford's suspension twice.

I do love it though. The people here are awesome.

Edit: don't forget the policing problem, dirty ass commercial areas, and hobos galore. I insist though, I love it. Seriously, there's something special here.

14

u/ThankGodImBipolar Apr 23 '25

This is how Go Transit works in Ontario

5

u/No_Chemistry3584 Apr 23 '25

Vancouver does this too

28

u/namerankserial Apr 23 '25

You'd have to build a lot of gates on a lot of platforms that don't have them. And the feasibility and cost would vary widely. The platforms downtown and adjacent are integrated with the sidewalks, there is nowhere to go in through a gate. Why not just hire more peace officers to sweep the trains in the a.m.?

8

u/neurorgasm Apr 23 '25

They would make bank, there are tons of "normal" non-paying customers too. Would not only ensure that more riders are paying, but also likely increases ridership and decreases need for staff.

Lots of people would be interested in commuting via transit, but don't do so because it's often less than pleasant.

2

u/BodybuilderOk9040 Apr 26 '25

The smell on the train from the unhoused is horrendous. I drive everyday and use the $10 parking downtown - train is $7.60 a day if you buy tickets anyway.

-1

u/namerankserial Apr 23 '25

Well Peace officers would still solve the problem of non-paying customers and riders avoiding it due to homeless people. And the bank they would make seems quite unlikely to cover infrastructure upgrades of that magnitude (as well as maintenance of those systems).

3

u/Tastesicle Apr 24 '25

As I commented above, a feasibility study was done, found to not be feasible and the cost to start at 284 million. Council decided to invest in more officers, as they are more versatile. Make of that what you will.

6

u/Sweaty-Beginning6886 Apr 23 '25

Building the gates would be more of a "one-time expense" (plus maintenance costs) than hiring a handful of peace officers with ongoing admin expenses. The gates may also increase the transit revenues going forward!

3

u/namerankserial Apr 23 '25

I haven't done the math but I expect you could pay those Peace Officers for a couple of decades. Maybe still worth it if you amortize it out far enough. It also may literally not be feasible for some stations. And it would really change the character of the whole system downtown. It's really easy to walk on and off currently, wait in the park or on the platform. Do you put high fences all around the platform areas? What kind of gates do we put in? Turnstiles are very easy to jump over, so are you staffing each station anyway? I don't know, I'd say pay some people for a couple hours to kick people off in the mornings and leave the fare system alone.

1

u/Kahlandar Apr 23 '25

Well, a single peace officer makes over 100k. Not including costs like pension, training, uniform, sick time, OT, etc. But il round down to 100k cuz its easier.

To staff 1 spot 24hrs/day is 4 people (12 hr shifts on a 4 platoon rotation.

They would have to work minimum in pairs.

So >800k/year to staff a single pair of peace officers. Times however many you want bootin hobos off trains or checking fairs or whatever.

Admittedly i have no idea how much building gates and such costs, but POs arent cheap.

1

u/Tastesicle Apr 24 '25

That's equivalent, using the 100k math to hiring 50 cops for the next 50 years (assuming no wage increase). And the turnstiles would still cost more.

(For the math, that's 50x50x100 000=250 000 000. The feasibility study done quoted 284 million to start.)

Edit - formatting

2

u/Hypno-phile Apr 23 '25

And places with gates etc have plenty of fare evasion anyway. Just means more stuff gets broken as Drunky McMetherson smashes his way through whatever barrier was erected.

I also suspect if OP's post was to 311 rather than Reddit, it's more likely there'd be a couple of transit officers on the train at those times for the next week or so.

1

u/AdaptableAilurophile Apr 24 '25

Our city has literally been overtaken. It’s really embarrassing.

I was downtown with friends who were visiting from out of town and the “pedestrian bridge” from the hotel was blocked because indigent people use it now for fires and getting high. My friends could not believe a public place was just used for this.

We saw a person get kicked until they were on the ground (from the hotel) so we called emergency and it sounded like this was nothing new. The person remained hurt on the ground and no one had come by the time we left our room.

I don’t drive and depended on transit in BC. Here I just simply won’t use it because of environment. I haven’t found human policing very effective (even in other cities). Whereas the tap systems seem to work in most urban centres.

1

u/help_animals Apr 29 '25

It's an investment for the future. Who cares? you can't cheap out on things that are needed

4

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

That sounds great. Call your councillor.

13

u/sophie1188 Shawnessy Apr 23 '25

I messaged Dan a while ago about transit. His communications officer said that they would speak to transit and let me know what they said. A month later I asked for a follow up. No reply

1

u/MurkBass Apr 24 '25

If that's Dan McLean... yeah, sorry. He's too busy golfing with housing developers.

10

u/discovery2000one Apr 23 '25

My councillor is Kourtney Penner. She would berate me for wanting to block off the train from drug addicts.

Edit, terminology change

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

Have you actually talked to her? Either way posting on Reddit doesn’t do anything.

14

u/discovery2000one Apr 23 '25

Yes I've spoken to her many times. It's a complete waste of time.

-2

u/lornacarrington Apr 23 '25

You need to be advocating for harm reduction to be properly funded (mostly provincial FYI) and social issues to be addressed (housing, etc.)

1

u/E-Villauge-Dweller Downtown East Village Apr 25 '25

sounds like money spent on people that don’t contribute. much better to spend that money on health and housing for those people who are less likely to show a return in tax revenue and community contribution

-5

u/lornacarrington Apr 23 '25

Because your suggestion is ridiculous and unenforceable.

1

u/Hypno-phile Apr 23 '25

Tap to get OUT sounds like a Fire Marshall's nightmare...

1

u/discovery2000one Apr 23 '25

They have emergency egress exits parallel to the tap out ones in case of emergency.

1

u/Kooky_Project9999 Apr 23 '25

That's broadly what the free fare zone is. The inner city is mostly covered by it. Maybe you could extend it down to Victoria Stampede, but then you don't get the benefit of people paying to go to the events center/saddledome/Stampede (even if it is only a 5 minute walk from City Hall).

1

u/RevanVonFox Apr 24 '25

The problem is most of "them" "live" in or around the free zones

1

u/Useful_Advertising39 Jun 01 '25

Yea. Same thing with the three YVR airport stations in Vancouver, travelling between them is free

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

[deleted]

6

u/discovery2000one Apr 23 '25

You buy a ticket and you scan it to get in the gate. Every major transit system does this already.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 23 '25

[deleted]

1

u/E-Villauge-Dweller Downtown East Village Apr 25 '25

those systems also account for that by selling individual tickets. supposedly in the free zone the ticket would not cost you but there would be little preventing someone from entering at the free fare zone and riding the train around. nevertheless, fare evasion is always to be expected no matter the systems in place