County transit a possibility for commuter students
By Matthew Burnett
Lance Writer
October 31, 2007
While Windsor celebrates the opening of its new, state-of-the-art bus terminal, residents of county municipalities are lobbying Transit Windsor to extend its transportation services to other locations in Essex County.
James Snyder, manager of strategic services for the Town of Lakeshore, claims that recent surveys done by his municipality indicate that its citizens are definitely attracted to the idea of bus services connecting Lakeshore to Windsor.
“Surveys show that 45 to 50 per cent of our population is really interested,” he said. “There is extreme interest in developing this on a regional level and on a local level.”
However, Snyder makes it clear that Transit Windsor has not brought any route-expansion plans to the table as of yet.
“The extension we’re looking for would be to the Lakeshore area, as far as Belle River,” said Snyder. “Basically, we’re still waiting for Transit Windsor to bring us a business case.”
Snyder also pointed out that if Transit Windsor decides it is not willing to broaden its services to encompass the communities of Lakeshore, then the town will have no choice but to proceed with other proposals it has heard.
“We have other inquiries from alternate services out there in the case that Transit Windsor doesn’t work out,” he stated.
Snyder noted that one advantage of a deal with Transit Windsor is that a number of its bus routes are already connected to the University of Windsor and St. Clair College, and clearly both schools draw plenty of students from the county.
Lakeshore is not the only municipality that has gotten involved in the push for a county-wide transit system. Frank Pizzuto, chief administrative officer for Amherstburg, claims that his municipality has been discussing route-extension with Transit Windsor for a long time.
“We had discussions about a year and a half ago with Transit Windsor about a service that would come down to Amherstburg through LaSalle,” said Pizzuto.
Considering that Transit Windsor’s services already includes part of LaSalle, Pizzuto does not see why routes cannot be broadened to include Amherstburg.
“I think that we have to really try to put something in a trial basis,” he said. “We think that it is environmentally responsible to do that.”
Pizzuto also mentioned that the Town of Amherstburg is no longer in talks with Transit Windsor because the transportation provider has decided it wants to examine the issue with regard to Essex County as a whole instead of each municipality.
Mary Brennan, Director of Council Services for the County of Essex, says that funds have been set aside to research the practicality of a county-wide transit system.
“We’ve started to do some research as to what other municipalities have done to extend transit to a regional area from a city,” she stated. “County council has approved the county to do a feasibility study.”
While there is no doubt that less traffic on Essex County roads would improve air quality in a region that is criticized for its bad air, Brennan insists she is not totally convinced that county residents would use a revamped transit system.
First-year University of Windsor student and county resident, Bobi-Jo Smith, says she would think about boarding a bus that carried her to Windsor if one ran through her hometown.
“I live in Comber,” said Smith. “On days that I have later classes, I usually decide to stay overnight at my aunt’s house.”
According to Smith, she’s better off sleeping in Windsor than driving home to Comber late at night when she’s tired.
“I would definitely consider county transit,” she said. “I think it’d make things a lot easier on students from out there.”
Currently, Transit Windsor carries six million passengers per year, reaching a population of 209,000. If it chose to implement a county-wide transit system, Transit Windsor would reach 375,000 people.
|
