Push for regional transit system gaining momentum
Councillor touts pilot project
The timing may be right for regional transit.
Once a contentious issue, politicians in Windsor and Essex County are keen to at least discuss the idea with several saying the service is long overdue. Coun. Bill Marra, chairman of Windsor’s transportation committee, said he wants to see a pilot project expand the city’s transit service east to Lakeshore by way of Tecumseh and then west to LaSalle and Amherstburg.
Amherstburg Mayor Aldo DiCarlo was bold enough to say this time could be different than the many failed attempts over the past few decades.
“This is something that has to be done,” he said. “Now’s the time to do it.”
Marra is confident a pilot project could be a happy medium between rolling out a full — but expensive — regional transit system and not moving ahead with one at all.
“If this city wants to mature and be the city we all know it can be, regional transit has to be part of that conversation,” he said, referring to his idea as a “measured approach” to see if there’s a demand.
Funding for a regional transit system has always been the major hurdle. Reluctant politicians fear their taxpayers will be on the hook for a service few people will actually use.
“It really comes down to how much you’re prepared to spend,” said LaSalle Mayor Ken Antaya.
“I THINK WE’RE MISSING THE MARK.”
“Is it going to be a drivethrough service that picks up two or three passengers a day?”
Recognizing previous failures, DiCarlo suggests communities do whatever they can to come up with a solution. He and his administration have long been eager to adopt a transit system and they look forward to finding a solution.
“Every few years, whether we like it or not, we have the conversation and nothing comes of it,” he said.
Expanding transit beyond Windsor has been studied several times with varying conclusions that suggest regional services would decrease depen- dency on single-occupancy vehicles, encourage businesses to invest and help retain jobs.
Marra’s idea will likely resonate in Lakeshore, said Mayor Tom Bain, who expects this topic to be a focal point of the town’s strategic planning session in the next month or two.
No matter how those talks go, though, transit service in Lakeshore will only work, financially at least, if neighbouring Tecumseh is on board and Transit Windsor operates the service, according to the town’s 2008 transportation master plan produced by IBI Group.
The document showed public support for Lakeshore transit service that connected to Tecumseh, which already has a small transit circuit that connects to Windsor via Tecumseh Mall.
“I agree, it would work best if we involve both municipalities,” Bain said.
Tecumseh is interested too, Deputy Mayor Joe Bachetti said. Ridership on the town’s buses are now up to 30,000 passenger trips per year and he suspects council would be happy to ask administrators to work with Windsor and Lakeshore to consider some sort of transfer program.
“There’s definitely an appetite for that kind of co-opera- tion,” he said.
The sooner the municipalities and the county come up with a plan, the better, said Marra. Funding from the federal and provincial governments are only going to come once a business case is prepared. “I think we’re missing the mark when it comes to attracting senior government investment in transit,” he said. “When you look at where the feds and the province invest money, it’s in regional services. If we can get buy-in for regional transit, we’ll get the money.”
If all the political players can sit down and come up with an agreement, Marra suggests a project could be imminent.
“If there was agreement today, I’m confident by the new year we could have something off the ground in terms of a pilot,” he said.
Cost has “absolutely” been the No. 1 deterrent from developing regional transit, said Penny Williams, the long-serving former executive director of Transit Windsor.
Depending on the service, she said, municipalities could be paying much more than half the cost for transit operations. The price of one 40-foot diesel bus is $450,000 alone, Williams said. There could be room for smaller vehicles depending on the service needed, but the costs are going to be high.
One of the challenges with a pilot project is finding enough time to establish a reliable transit system that people can depend on. Any new service takes about 12 to 18 months to build, Williams said.
“You have to build it slowly, so people can gain confidence that the service is there and it’s going to be dependable,” she said.
“People make transit choices for the longer range. That’s why, if we lose a passenger to a car, we may never get that passenger back.”
BILL MARRA