City councillors Mark King, left, and Daryl Vaillancourt discuss city staff's new transit service level proposal during Community Services Committee discussions on Tuesday. In an attempt to save costs and revamp the transit system, the proposal could see an annual savings of $224,000. PHOTO BY LIAM BERTI
Those who use the city buses might want to pay attention to the potential overhaul of the routes and schedules.
With city councillors looking to find savings wherever they can, the city’s transit system underwent a comprehensive review that resulted in a proposed service level change report presented to the Community Services Committee on Tuesday.
Highlighting the changes would be enhanced service hours for early starters and late riders, more frequent route trips, and an eight-month window for special peak time service.
The overhaul would save an estimated $66,000 if implemented at the beginning of June of this year. After that though, staff said they were “fairly confident” the new program would result in $224,000 in annual savings starting in 2016.
John Severino, the city’s director of community services, said the majority of those savings would come from staffing, which would go from 28 permanent operators down to 25 under the proposed changes.
“Staff have done an excellent job to enhance the whole service,” said Community Services Chair, Coun. Mark King. “It could be something special here where we might even be able to turn up the revenues if we are providing a service.”
The transit department administered a passenger survey in the Fall of 2013 and ran all the way until the Spring of 2014. When all was said and done, 600 of the surveys came back completed, providing a wealth of first-hand user knowledge for the department to work with.
Most notably, there was an overwhelming appetite for extended service hours every day of the week, increasing from hourly routes to half hour services, and enhanced service on statutory holidays, to name just a few.
Due to the high demand from students, the new service would run every 20 minutes during peak service times (6:30-9:30 a.m. and 3:30-6:30 p.m.) for the Marshall, College, Campus Special, and Ski Club/Pinewood routes between September 1 and April 30.
There was also a lot of discussion of the earlier schedule times helping hospital staff get to work in time, many of whom have reportedly requested earlier routes so they don’t have to pay the parking fees at the hospital.
“One of the issues people mentioned was the fact that they have to have a timely service that gets them to work at the right time, and I think they may have captured that,” King said after the meeting.
During the off-peak hours and from May 1-August 31, the routes would return to half hour frequency. Meanwhile, staff is proposing that the city offer service on Boxing Day, Family Day, Easter Monday and Civic Holiday.
The three existing transfer points would also be upped to 10, including Northgate, Founders House, Airport Road/O’Brien, Cassells/Alive, among others.
Although the presentation was labeled as a service level increase and is said to “represent an overall enhancement to service”, Coun. Daryl Vaillancourt was quick to hold his colleagues accountable and clarified that the changes would, in fact, bring about discontinuations and route changes.
“Let’s not forget that we are cutting services,” Vaillancourt said sternly during the discussion. “For some reason we get overly confident in the fifth-floor boardroom…so it will be interesting to see what this will be like when it goes down to Council Chambers.”
Those changes would include the North Highway route being discontinued due to an average of only 8-10 people using it per day, the Champlain route would be combined with Junction route, and the Pinewood route would be combined with Ski Club.
That means there would be a loss of service North of Algonquin Road/Airport Road, while increasing the walking distance to some bus stops. Ultimately though, staff said there would be adjustments to almost every route.
There were also concerns for the public education campaign that would have to be implemented in order for the changes to be realized, but Severino said that the funds needed for that have already been taken into consideration in the estimated savings.
Bus fares were also an area of contention on Tuesday, with two different proposals coming forward: a 15-cent increase (to $2.90) and a 25-cent increase (to $3.00). The second option ultimately gained the most traction and was moved forward.
Coun. George Maroosis, in particular, was vocal in his displeasure for a rider having to fumble and find exact change for the $2.90 option, arguing that most customers would probably pay the even $3.00 anyways for sake of ease.
There was also some talk about the possibility of allowing children under the age of 12 to ride for free if the city makes enough money by bumping up the rates.
City staff are still looking at a few details and suggestions put forward on Tuesday, but the committee members and councillors seemed warm to the general ideas put forward.
“It certainly appears that the core of the city is going to be really well serviced,” King said. “I’m interested to see what the feedback will be out in the public.”
