As light rail approaches, buses must also change
In 2013, its busiest year, there were 22 million rides on Grand River Transit buses. Since then, the number of trips has fallen to under 20 million. Can the Ion electric train system help push it back up and beyond?
These trains, now being tested on the newly constructed tracks in Kitchener and Waterloo, are the front end of an experiment that aims to change the way we get around.
Before the first passenger comes aboard, the train line has stimulated more than $2 billion of development near its path. Both the landscape and the character, especially of central Kitchener, have been transformed. Bus routes must adapt as well. Service is being enriched, realigned, and connecting whenever possible with the light rail system. But that isn’t easy. Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge are all sprawling communities that were built for cars, not buses and trains.
“We’re moving away from the radial system,” said John Cicuttin, the region’s manager of transit development. In that system, many routes start at a central point and go out to the suburbs. Think of the spokes of a wheel: If you wanted to go from the west end to the south end of the city, you’d have to go into the central terminal and back out again.
Cicuttin said many changes are being made to create a more grid-like system in which buses will follow heavily travelled roads like Ottawa Street or Weber Street.
On Weber Street, for example, a new Route 18 will run buses along that road between the Fairway Ion station and University Avenue. On Ottawa Street, a new express bus will run next year from the Sunrise Centre all the way to Lackner Boulevard.
That’s one tool in the campaign to get more people out of their cars and onto public transit.
Another is making the bus stops more comfortable by having “amenities” at the stops, like shelters and electronic information boards that tell you how many minutes you have until the next bus. “It gives (the riders) that feeling of independence,” Cicuttin said.
Meanwhile, the Route 7 bus that travels along King Street in no less than six different route variations, will be vastly simplified next year. It will stick to King Street from Conestoga Mall to Kingsway, then head to Fairway Road. That route will be important for the highly intensified student population who live around Wilfrid Laurier University, and will be missed by the Ion train.
Until Friday, you can participate in an online survey on the new routes. Go to the Grand River Transit website at www.grt.ca and click on “2018 Transit Network.”
Why did fewer riders use the bus after 2013? In 2014, the numbers dropped to 21.6 million. A year later, they fell to 20.3 million and, in 2016, 19.7 million. Cicuttin says there were two factors: School boards decided to use yellow school buses instead of municipal buses for school routes. And there was the disruptive effects of light rail construction, which made it difficult to take the bus because routes were altered.
The redesigned system isn’t perfect. There still aren’t stops at obvious places like the Waterloo Region Museum and Waterloo Memorial Recreation Complex. But it’s much better. Will it be enough for us to reach the goal of 27.3 million rides by 2021? Maybe — if the routes are right, the ride is comfortable, and the entire decision lighter on the bank account.