Transit investment fuels regional bus system goal
Development of a fully integrated regional transit system for Niagara is speeding up, fuelled by $23.9 million in new provincial funding announced Thursday.
“It’s exciting,” said St. Catharines Transit manager Graham Morrison, who learned more than a week ago local applications for transit enhancements had been approved and passed on to the federal government for additional funding.
“It’s a lot of money, and it’s great for them to be doing this.”
The bulk of the funding, about $12.9 million, will be spent in St. Catharines to pay for nine projects in the city, including $3.3 million to expand the bus storage and maintenance facility.
Although a provincial government media release says the expansion will allow the building to serve as regional transit headquarters once services are fully integrated, Morrison said no decision has been made on the future location of regional transit headquarters.
“It’s just that we’re expanding the building because of the growth we’ve had over the past few years and anticipated growth, so we need more bus storage and more space in general for everything,” he said.
He added the expansion will provide enough room to store about 100 buses at a time.
Morrison said the new St. Catharines facility “would probably be the logical choice (for regional transit headquarters), but Welland’s building a facility as well, and the Falls has a fairly decent facility too.”
Welland’s new building was also included in the provincial funding announcement, with $5 million earmarked for construction of the facility designed to accommodate 50 buses, while the Niagara Falls transit facility is still relatively new.
“Ultimately, because Niagara is spread out so much there will be multiple facilities, otherwise you’ll spend a lot of money running buses back and forth and that sort of thing,” Morrison said.
“There’s still a long way to go with some of those decisions.”
Other St. Catharines transit investments include $3 million to purchase 10 new buses and expand the existing fleet, $2.9 million to replace 11 existing buses, $1.3 million for new fare boxes, $900,000 to install cameras and radios on 89 vehicles, $700,000 to reconstruct 100 bus stops in the city, $400,000 for four para-transit vehicles and $200,000 to renovate the downtown terminal.
Morrison said the reconstructed bus stops will likely be among the most obvious improvements for local travellers, as well as renovations planned at the downtown terminal.
While the new bus stops will enhance accessibility and provide additional shelter, he said the terminal renovations are “long overdue.”
“It’s a facility that’s about 25 years old now, and it needs some updates and improved accessibility in the washrooms, the platform and some of the customer amenities down there,” he said.
Elsewhere in the region, provincial funding will pay for 10 projects worth about $4.57 million in Niagara Falls, three planned for Niagara Region transit worth $1.3 million, and new fare boxes for buses in Fort Erie worth $100,000.
In addition to the 33 per cent provincial funding, Morrison said the federal government has been asked to pitch in 40 per cent of construction costs, while local municipalities will contribute the rest.
Although Morrison couldn’t predict when the federal funding would become available, he said “the ideal scenario” would be to start construction next year.
He said even some of the least expensive investments will go a long way toward making integrated regional transit a reality.
“We’re all trying to move to the same thing, so we’re prepared once we get common technology,” he said, adding it will allow passengers to use the same transit card to ride buses throughout Niagara.