Guelph Transit changing to 20 minute schedule

On July 6th, 2008, Guelph Transit will switch over to the much anticipated 20 minute bus schedule. After almost a year of a slow, inconvenient and frustrating 40 minute schedule, Guelph will be making many transit users smile - until they find out about the increase in property taxes and signigicant fare hikes.

On Tuesday, June 17th, the Guelph Tribune published an article about the new 20 minute service, saying that the new schedule has increased "property taxes by 0.66%" and riders "face significant fare increases."

Last week I wrote about the inconvenient schedule and unnecessary emissions from buses idling. Now, in order to have a schedule that can fit the overload of people during peak times onto a bus (within a 20 minute period,) riders must pay more. I understand that the few buses that were bought cost money, but we already pay $2.00 / ride or $58.00/ month for a bus pas.

In the Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge area, you can take a bus for $2.50 and go to any one of those 3 cities. If Guelph increases the fare to $2.50, how would this make sense? Am I missing something? Guelph is a lot smaller than those 3 cities, yet you can take a bus from Kitchener to Cambridge that will only take 20 or 25 minutes. Yes, the K-W area is bigger and would therefore have more riders, but Guelph buses don't go half the distance and don't have half the riders our neighbouring cities do.

I'm hoping that with the 20 minute service, the transit system will be able to attract more downtown workers to take the bus. However, if they don't, the rest of us who already take the bus to work are left with a higher fare, maybe even leading people to drive?? Who knows. I'm a five minute drive from downtown. It might not be cheaper to take the bus instead of my car. But I wouldn't do that, because it's impossible to park downtown and it's better for the environment. (I hope.)

For more detailed information about the schedule changes, read the Guelph Tribune article.

Link to article about Guelph Transit

Here's a story written about the transit situation. In general, the public's reaction to the schedule change has not been positive, as noted in this article and many others when searched for online.

http://insideguelph.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/guelph-transit-takes-a-step-backward/

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