Good morning!

Tomorrow, Grand River Transit is hosting the first in-person information session. It will be held at Forest Height Community Centre from 6:30 to 8:30pm and is intended to be "drop-in" in nature.

GRT presented the extension of route 34 during last week's virtual meeting, this does mitigate some of the loss of Route 2. I appreciate the work put into researching and creating this extension, and the discussion around it at Regional Council the following day. That is available for viewing here , relevant discussion begins at 4h30m and lasts about 24 minutes.

The takeaways from the regional council are:

• The new report TSD-TRS-23-006
• Route 34 extension will cover the central portion of Route 2 during peak weekday hours; 6am to 10am and 2pm to 6pm, Monday to Friday
• Route 73 is given no viable alternatives
• Two options were presented to council:
  • Option 1 Route 34 Extension - That the Regional Municipality of Waterloo implement a Route 34 extension effective September 5 2023 with an estimated net cost of of $98,000 to be funded from the Tax Stabilization Reserve and an estimated net cost of $294,000 to be included in the preliminary 2024 budget as set out in Report: TSD-TRS-23-006 dated June 6, 2023 and to implement additional iXpress stops (both directions) at Highland/Walkway to Burnaby.
  • Option 2 Take No Action - That the Regional Municipality of Waterloo take no action with respect to Report: TSD-TRS-23-006 dated June 6, 2023
• GRT believe mitigation to the Forest Heights portion of Route 2 is done by the new iXpress stops and Route 1's current path
• Only new stops will be on Highland Rd. for the iXpress and should be created with accessibility in mind.
• Regional council and GRT will be creating a set process to correctly engage the impacted public and public transit users concerning any changes to routes.
• The route 34 extension is a successful mitigation for many on route 2 but the Westheights/Forest Heights neighbourhoods and middle school are not covered, neither is east of Charles St. This raises concerns about access to the medical centres situated along route 2 for those outside the central portion the extension of route 34 will cover.
• The alternatives to removal of route 73 should be expedited, given a deeper understanding of the impact of removing the route.
• Acknowledgement that communication and public engagement is something to be improved.

GRT has designated tomorrow evening's session to be for Route 2.  I share the community concerns for Route 73 and hope GRT is planning to give the supporters of Route 73 the same consideration especially after many of the worrying stories expressed at the virtual info session on the evening of June 5th.

Public transit is a lifeline, it is job security, it is access to healthcare and education, it is an essential service and whether a bus is standing room only or 1/3 full every rider deserves the same consideration. This wasn't demonstrated when the cuts were originally planned and approved or during the virtual session.

I hope something GRT has realized, and it's odd to see that they genuinely didn't seem to, is that when routes are introduced it isn't something that they can just simply take away when it's not profitable for them and disregard the public who use those routes. 

Burying transit cuts in budgets is not the equivalent of public engagement. In this case the redirection of resources is the equivalent to a cut not an expansion. These decisions were made without a fulsome, in-depth understanding but on a singular piece of data - not one rider (nor driver) of route 2 or route 73 were spoken with prior to the cut passing. The effort to do better by the Region of Waterloo and Grand River Transit is excellent, and hopeful! Let's hold them to it.

I hope to see many of you there tomorrow evening and I'm so thankful for the work everyone has done.