Region transit gets three-year extension
Niagara Region Transit has been given three more years of life.
A unanimous vote during the May 24 regional council meeting was the final vote necessary to finalize the approval of an agreement between the upper-tier municipality and the transit commissions of St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls to continue the current regional system.
The vote means the current inter-municipal transit system run by the Region has been extended for another three years.
Matt Robinson, the Region’s director of GO implementation, said the extension means intermunicipal transit — it sees about 500,000 rides annually — is no longer consider a “pilot project” but rather is a “permanent” transit system.
The extension gives the Region and the cities time to build an integrated transit system for Niagara.
Robinson said the regional system would be expanded and improved with the 2019 regional budget providing the necessary funding.
He said some routes, such as the Welland to Niagara Falls line, need to be improved by increasing the frequency of buses from every hour to every 30 minutes.
He also said the service will link with GO stations in west Niagara as they come online. Robinson said part of the deal to bring GO trains to Niagara was to ensure there were local transit links with the train stations. As GO services expand to Niagara Falls — expected to be in 2023 — local transit will link with new stations.
The inter-municipal system began as a pilot in 2010 with an agreement between the Region and the three transit commissions. In 2017, unanimous votes at all three cities granted the Region the jurisdiction to operate buses between municipalities on a permanent basis.