Waterloo university students want ‘late-night’ bus service reinstated
Waterloo university students want public transit that doesn’t end at midnight and a regional councillor is advocating on their behalf, hoping to restore “late-night” bus service lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The students at UW approached me about some of their concerns around transportation,” said Coun. Colleen James, who chairs Waterloo Region’s planning and public works committee.
“They raised with me the concern about the late-night loop that used to exist and doesn’t anymore, and with ridership now surpassing what we had before the pandemic, there is clearly a need to reinstate it.”
Former Grand River Transit Bus Routes 91 and 92 connected Waterloo’s uptown area with student residences in the university district, said James, who’s bringing a motion forward at next Wednesday’s council meeting to have them reimplemented seven days a week, year-round, at 20-minute intervals, with the last buses leaving terminals at 2:40 a.m.
An Uber from Waterloo Town Square to University of Waterloo Campus Housing on Friday at 2:30 a.m. costs $37.20 and a bus ticket costs, at most, $3.75, the motion states, noting that “incidents of impaired driving increase when alternative transportation costs increase, and public safety increases when additional safe transit options are made available at night.”
Damian Mikhail, co-president of the University of Waterloo NDP Club, said he’s made the 40-minute walk home during the early morning hours after missing the last scheduled bus.
“I can get away with it, but I don’t fully feel safe and I’ve seen the harassment happen,” he said, adding that many female delegates intend to appear before council next week to make their cases for better bus service. Not everyone is capable of being able to casually walk home at 2 a.m. and “The city doesn’t just end after 12,” Mikhail said.
“Night transit has been something that people have been talking about for a while because we’ve all experienced situations where maybe we stay a little bit too late and missed that last bus. Especially during finals, this has been a pretty huge issue.”
Students advocated and raised some valid concerns around safety and cost effectiveness, said James. “They are paying for transportation through their U-pass, and this was something that they had before and they’re really wanting to bring back because there’s definitely a need.”
GRT Routes 91 and 92 had been put on hold along with other routes as part of GRT’s initial COVID reductions and weren’t restored as additional frequency and coverage were added to existing routes to meet demand, the region said in a statement.
“Late-night service had low ridership prior to the pandemic, so resources were reallocated to larger areas of need.”
There may be some concerns related to potential ridership or having enough operators to get the service back in place by September, said James, who surmised that it could be reinstated on weekends to start.
Route 91, which ran from the Charles Street Terminal in Kitchener to the University of Waterloo, operated only on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 12:30 to 2 a.m. with 30-minute service, according to the region.
“It makes a big economic impact,” said Jeyas Balaskanthan, executive director of the Uptown Waterloo BIA, who said there are lots of shift workers, many of them students working in local hospitality establishments, who’d benefit from latenight bus service.
If they use Uber, half the money they earn goes to transportation, whereas students have already paid for their bus pass, said Balaskanthan. “It’s a better mode of transportation, it’s a safer mode of transportation and it’s an affordable mode of transportation,” he said. “It’s a win-win overall.”
‘‘ (Students) raised with me the concern about the late-night loop that used to exist and doesn’t anymore, and with ridership now surpassing what we had before the pandemic, there is clearly a need to reinstate it.
COUN. COLLEEN JAMES