BIG BOOST FOR BUSES
Major funding to ‘revitalize’ city’s transit system
A plan that will see the two senior levels of government invest more than $100 million in Windsor’s public transportation system is being called a game changer. “This will give us a chance to accelerate public transit so much,” said city Coun. Bill Marra, who chairs the Transit Windsor advisory committee. “That’s a lot of money for public transit — that’s a game changer.”
Federal Minister of Infrastructure and Communities Amarjeet Sohi announced Friday that Windsor would receive $57 million in federal funding and $47 million from the province over 10 years as its share of the Investing in Canada plan. The city will kick in a portion as well, with the objective of the overall spend being to transform the way Canadians live, move and work.
“This is the largest infrastructure investment the federal government is making to support numerous communities to build better public transportation systems,” Sohi told The Star in a phone interview. “These are significant investments and changes we are making to enable municipalities to build infrastructure they need.” Transit Windsor has been working on a master plan for a number of years and, after presenting it to council, was recently asked to complete a phased report. As part of that effort, Transit Windsor received $10.2 million last year. Transit Windsor executive director Pat Delmore said that money is being used to “revitalize” the system, with 24 new buses purchased and 120 new bus shelters to be installed throughout the city as well as investments being made in updating bus facility and maintenance areas.
“No definitive decisions have been made, but we do have a lot of ideas and plans,” Delmore said of the new funds just announced. “We are doing a service delivery review right now, which we expect to be our road map to the future over the next 10 years.” The review is taking an indepth look at the system, focusing on things like bus routes and highlighting areas that are underserviced as well as looking at the expected growth of the city. Marra said the funding will help Transit Windsor to improve its system while investing in technology that will provide riders with things like real-time access to information, such as informing riders about bus arrival times. He said there has been some significant recent improvements in ridership with an agreement with the University of Windsor and by expanding service into LaSalle. “This allows us to start making a case for a regional transit system because the resources are now going to be available,” Marra said. “It’s exciting for a number of reasons. And I think for the Windsor Essex area this truly could be a game-changing investment because it allows us to do a number of things and do it over a short period of time.”
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens said the funding will provide a nice boost to the city’s public and active transportation systems. He said details are still scarce on how the money will be allotted over 10 years. One of the hopes, however, is to use a portion of it to connect Windsor’s cycling infrastructure to the city’s public transit system. “We are hoping to upgrade our system, provide better service and transit and I’m sure there are many ways for us to do that,” Dilkens said. “In addition, how can we improve the cycling network to be able to allow folks to access by bicycle the current transit stops? So you add the active transportation to it and it could become a very exciting announcement.”
This allows us to start making a case for a regional transit system because the resources are now going to be available.