Plaza taken off bus route to improve timing

Some changes made for safety reasons, says transit manager

Welland’s city buses no longer pulling into the Rose City Plaza to pick up riders was a decision that needed to be made, says transit manager Dave Stuart.

Effective after Labour Day weekend, changes to four routes were implemented — one of them historically known as route six.

Now numbered 506, the schedule doesn’t include the plaza. Passengers in the area are asked to catch the bus at Ontario Road after the parking lot at the local shopping centre were deemed too hectic and crowded for transit operators to move through. Delivery trucks and other vehicles, shopping carts, people walking and texting – there is too much activity that has impeded the tight schedule transit users depend on to get to work and school, said Stuart.

“It was really difficult for our operators. Often, at times, they were getting trapped in there,” said Stuart.

Complaints about the route being behind schedule were also a major contributor to the plan being adjusted.

“We were losing integrity to that service in terms of timing,” he said.

Moving the 40-foot bus around the busy lot also becomes especially challenging in the winter, he pointed out.

Aside from the Ontario Road junction, there is a stop just behind the plaza on the corner of MacInnis and Morningstar, Stuart says riders should be aware of.

Approximately 25 per cent of Welland Transit’s ridership transfers between buses at the downtown terminal.

Drivers will wait a maximum of five minutes at the terminal for transfers and if a bus is running later than that, they all clear to ensure all the other customers get to their destinations on time, Stuart explained.

Since the changes were made earlier this month, compliments have also been received, claimed Stuart.

“There’s a large number of people that are happy now because they’re making their connections at the terminal,” he said.

The moves were advertised all over the city before becoming active and an open house was held on June 20 that received “strong attendance,” said Stuart.

“It’s not something we particularly wanted to do, it’s something we had to do.”

One rider who isn’t pleased with the change is Keith Watts, a Niagara College student who travels the route five times a week.

He says the local transit provider should be able to work out a new plan on where the bus stops in the plaza property and has concerns for others who have to get to Ontario Road with their groceries, or use the stop at MacInnis and Morningstar that is along another route.

“All the time I see people in wheelchairs and elderly people who can’t walk that far to cross the street or go behind the plaza to catch a different bus,” he said.

Stuart said the municipality has attempted to work with the plaza owner on a solution but has not received much interest from them on the matter.