Transit Growth Strategy Implementation – Update

The following is an update provided by Transit managment on operational improvements Guelph Transit has or intends to make to address on-going implementation issues. I have added the bold/italic for emphasis of key points.

• Community Bus – A stop at the Elliott has been added to the North Route. This was implemented yesterday. Brochures were sent to the Elliott.
• Route 55 – This was an express route historically serving the College/Stone corridors travelling to the UC. It will be put into service again starting tomorrow to address volume issues in that area and provide relief to the 1 A/B and 2 A/B. This should assist in buses running on schedule and transfers being made at the UC. University students should already be familiar with this route. It will run from 7:15 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. and 5:15 p.m. The service will be 15 minute frequency at all times. Info will be updated on our website and temporary stops will be put out tomorrow.
• Route 2 A/B – We have had Guelph Transit’s Planning Committee driving (on street) a number of options to reduce running time while maintaining the current service level. We will have a recommended alternative by the end of this week. In order to have the time to communicate the revisions appropriately, the changes would be implemented the last week of January. The option chosen will also address the issue of providing service to the front door of ARC Industries.
• Route 5 – There is a extremely heavy volume of traffic during very specific time periods going north in the morning and coming south in afternoon. As a result, a number of buses on regular service are filling up and going “out of service” and doing drop offs only. The core issue is not with the route structure but with available capacity. To address the capacity issue I am sending out extras during certain periods of the day to the hot spots. This is helping but there are instances when students are not able to get on the first bus that goes by.
• Route 20 – We will be looking at the route and bus stop structure when revisions to the 2 A/B are finished. This route will be updated no later than the 3rd week of February
• Legion Stop – A new resource has been assigned by the Legion to deal with this issue on their behalf. We have spoken with them and outlined the simple infrastructure fix that is needed for accessible off-loading on their property. We have agreed to meet in the spring to discuss how to move forward.
• Out of Service Stops – We are doing an audit of all old routes to ensure that where a stop has been taken out of service, all bus stop signs, info posts, and shelters and benches (where installed) have been removed or will be marked for removal in the next week.

Transit management has conveyed these improvements will wrap up the tweaking he believes can be done to improve the new service model. There is concern that these efforts may not be enough to fully address the demand placed on the system by students in the Gordon Street South corridor. I was reminded that Transit’s carrying capacity in this corridor was exceeded on a somewhat regular basis with the previous routes. That this problem continues has only exacerbated our riders negative opinion of the new routes and service model. We are providing more extra buses as indicated above, but this is being accomplished by reducing our spare ratio. The consequence of this is it reduces our ability to maintain the fleet. This is clearly not a long term solution. I have asked staff to make queries on quickly acquiring an additional four buses, the quantity believed necessary to address the Gordon corridor. We will pursue this course of action depending on the information received. I will advise as more information becomes available.   Staff

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