On the buses
What today’s transit riders say about light rail launch delay
The news that the light rail trains for Kitchener and Waterloo will be delayed until next spring may have been a bombshell in political circles.
But it’s just a big shrug to many of the people who actually ride the Grand River Transit buses.
Those trains are “a big waste of money,” said Melissa Randell of Waterloo who was travelling on the 202 express bus to Conestoga Mall Wednesday afternoon for dinner out with her kids.
“I was over it. I didn’t even care. What’s wrong with the bus routes?”
Mississauga and Brampton, two larger cities than Waterloo, don’t have light rail within their cities, she pointed out. Why do we need it?
Randell had heard the news that the launch of Ion light rail trains will be delayed until spring 2019, a full two years late. Waterloo Region officials said the manufacturer, Bombardier Inc., is having difficulty fitting the trains with specialized software.
Her 12-year-old son, Jayden, on the other hand, was excited for the arrival of the trains and disappointed about the delay.
He knew all of its advantages. “A smoother ride. Less noise. You don’t have to stop for traffic,” he said.
Almost as if to make his point for him, the bus lurched forward and then stopped abruptly when the driver noticed someone was trying to get off at the back door. Somehow, Melissa’s eightmonth-old baby, snug in her stroller, slept through the jolt.
Jayden’s enthusiasm seemed to soften Melissa’s heart a bit.
The train “does give you that metro feel,” she said, smiling.
University and college students, who get heavily discounted fares, are a huge portion of the bus ridership right now.
None of the students I talked to were aware that the trains were going to be delayed. Nor did they much care.
“We don’t think it affects us,” said Laura Alvarez, a third-year student in biology and psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University.
She’d like to see the trains launched before she graduates next year, since she has lived through the years of “neverending” construction.
Students were more interested in the current service than in when the new vehicles might arrive.
Laurier business student Monique Riendeau said service is very good on weekday mornings, but not frequent enough on weekends. She’d like that to change.
Other riders said they need reliability and frequency from the buses more than anything else. They need to be on time for work or class. The years of construction have made that a challenge.
It’s all a reminder that there are two kinds of people who are going to be using transit, in the push to expand ridership on buses and trains from nearly 20 million in 2017 to 28 million in 2021.
One is the group that is new to our transit system. The thinking goes that they will be tempted to get out of their cars by the carefully planned park-and-ride opportunities, the glamour of the train ride, the location of some of the stations near major workplaces.
The other is the people who already use transit. They matter, too.
Lifetime habits are being influenced with every friendly conversation, and every dirty seat.
When the trains finally start carrying passengers, they’ll send a powerful message.
Because they are sleek and beautiful, because they have remade the landscape of the cities we call home, they will make the statement that the people who ride transit are every bit as deserving of comfort and efficiency, every bit as dignified, as the people who drive their cars.