Pan Am plan pushes public transit
The province revealed measures Tuesday to keep people moving during this summer’s Pan Am and Parapan Am Games.
The Pan Am/ Parapan Am Transportation Team ( PATT) held a media session in Toronto to unveil its strategy to keep an anticipated 250,000 visitors freely moving to and from the Games’ 23 host municipalities.
The PATT team consists of the Ministry of Transportation, the Games secretariat, Toronto 2015, Integrated Security Unit, the Accessibility Directorate of Ontario, Metrolinx and Toronto Transit Commission.
The PATT team is taking a “transit first” approach to help minimize traffi c impact on roadways to ensure easy access to competitions, such as the rowing events at the Royal Canadian Henley Regatta facility at Martindale Pond in St. Catharines and the canoe events at Welland’s fl atwater centre.
The 51- page media briefing package handed out Tuesday, says transit providers will offer extended hours and shuttles to help people reach events and get cars off the roads.
What we’ll be doing is meeting every GO bus that comes to Fairview Mall and one bus will run to Welland — to the fl atwater centre — and one bus will run to the Henley.”
Dave Sherlock
Transit riders can use their event tickets to ride for free on the day of the event.
Shuttling people to and from St. Catharines will be additional GO buses, which will drop people off at the Fairview Mall where they will then connect with local transit for rides to Port Dalhousie and Welland.
St. Catharines Transit general manager Dave Sherlock said Tuesday afternoon his bus service was contracted by Games offi cials to shuttle people from the mall to the event locations in the Garden City and Welland.
“What we’ll be doing is meeting every GO bus that comes to Fairview Mall and one bus will run to Welland — to the flatwater centre — and one bus will run to the Henley,” Sherlock said.
York Region Transit is tasked with providing a one- call service hooking up all providers with people requiring specialized transit to and from venues. Users can begin booking specialized transit beginning July 3.
Games ambassadors will be placed at 40 GO and TTC Games transit hubs across the Greater Toronto and Hamilton area. Th ese ambassadors, who will wear clearly identifi able uniforms, will handle among other things customer service inquiries, first aid and answer scheduling questions.
Detailed schedules are available at www. gotransit. com and www.Triplinx.ca.
Another measure to be implemented is the creation of temporary high- occupancy vehicle lanes along provincial highways.
Th e temporary HOV lanes will be for the exclusive use of vehicles with three or more passengers, emergency vehicles, public transit, licensed taxis and electric vehicles from June 29 to July 27.
From July 28 to Aug. 18, those lanes will also open to vehicles with two or more passengers. Th e temporary HOV lanes will be active from 5 a. m. to 11 p. m. and will be clearly marked with pavement markings and signage.