Guelph Transit System

For years, the Guelph Transit system was on a thirty minute schedule, meeting downtown at quarter after and quarter to each hour. The thirty minute service allowed you to basically get from one end of Guelph to the other in less than an hour.

Last September, due to a few of the longer routes causing buses to run late during peak times (in the morning when kids are going to school, and at the end of the afternoon,) the transit system changed the schedule to a 40 minute service during the 'peak times.' Peak times include 2 hours in the morning, and 6 hours in the afternoon. This was to allow them to get downtown back on time.

Instead of adding more buses onto the already busy routes (some of which had tell people to wait for the next bus,) they just extended the schedule another 10 minutes. This has caused the already packed buses to become more packed, because there is less flexibility to catch the next one. If someone is travelling across town, it would take an extra 20 minutes already (if transferring downtown,) so waiting for the next bus isn't an option.

Every day I take the bus to work. The route from my house actually takes less than half an hour to loop back downtown. Because of this, my bus sits for 5 - 10 minutes at the side of the road to pass time. Not only is it ridiculous that a bus sits and idles for that long every morning on it's route, it makes me wonder why a 40 minute service was implemented in the first place? They obviously had to have done research, so how did they miss the fact that 30 minutes was already more than enough time for many of the routes? Yes, some routes needed the extra time, but why not put 2 buses on that route, or create a 20 minute service where the buses would leave 20 minutes apart?

Apparently Guelph Transit will be implementing a 20 minute service, but not until next year. They plan to buy a few new buses in order to accommodate the new schedule. We'll see when this plan is finally implemented. In the mean time:
- They've lost a few of their patrons (like me, who used to take the bus to the Stone Road mall area but now doesn't because it takes too long);
- They're doing more damage to the environment than before from idling. Guelph has always claimed itself as a "green" city, setting a good example for other cities. This bus situation proves just how untrue this is when it comes to vehicle emissions; and
- They're giving patrons fewer chances to take the bus.

That's all for now. I'll post links about the schedule when I hear more about it.

L