Like many people in Waterloo region, my family and I regularly visit pc28¹ÙÍøon weekends. Last Saturday was the first time we took transit. We didn’t do anything unusual for us: a visit to the AGO and dinner with a friend. But it was how we got there that was such a game changer.
Last weekend marked a milestone for transit in the pc28¹ÙÍøregion. April 8, GO started running hourly . They only operate as far as Mount Pleasant in Brampton, but if last weekend’s ridership is anything to go by, this is already growing ridership and taking cars off the road.
To get to and from Waterloo region, trains connect with the GO Bus 30 route at Bramalea. This train/bus combination takes just over two hours from Kitchener to pc28¹ÙÍøand one hour and 45 minutes from pc28¹ÙÍøto Kitchener.
The bus continues to Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo. While this may not entice everyone out of their cars, it represents a big improvement.
I can’t stress enough how transformative this is. Previously on weekends, it took three hours to get to pc28¹ÙÍøon transit, a journey that involved changing buses at Square One, Mississauga. No wonder most people drove.
GO Transit has traditionally focused on 9-to-5 commutes. This ridership is still below pre-pandemic levels. However, weekend journeys now exceed 2019 numbers.
Transit planners at GO are starting to emphasize off-peak and weekend trips, as well as better connections to colleges, universities and regional centres. Trains are important, but so too are buses. GO’s 407 service orbiting pc28¹ÙÍøconnects Hamilton and Oakville with Richmond Hill, Pickering and Oshawa. What began as one route is now eight, providing fast and frequent transit in the 905.
Adding more transit . This poses a challenge for the new hourly weekend bus to Waterloo region. Each double-decker bus has around 80 seats; the ones we rode each had more than 50 passengers. Some buses left the University of Waterloo full, meaning people in Kitchener had to wait an hour for the next one. This often happens on other routes too.
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Last weekend was pretty quiet in Toronto. Add in a Blue Jays game, festivals and events on a in July and it’s clear one bus per hour will be insufficient. GO will need to run multiple buses each hour to meet demand.
To grow this service, GO simply can’t leave passengers stranded at bus stops because they under estimated demand. Even as a transit advocate, I wouldn’t use that route again if I couldn’t get on the bus because it was full.
In addition to more buses, extending the new weekend train service all the way to Kitchener — even a train every three hours — would attract more people out of their cars. Weekday off-peak trains already do this.
Metrolinx is upgrading the track between Georgetown and Kitchener to enable more frequent trains. Metrolinx also needs to negotiate with CN, which owns the tracks between Bramalea and Georgetown. The fact that weekend trains now run deep into CN-owned territory is a promising sign Metrolinx can get more slots for trains to Kitchener. When that happens, Bus 30 will be largely redundant.
Too many riders is a good problem for a transit agency. GO and Metrolinx need to quickly figure out how to ensure everyone can get to their destinations on time.
The new weekend transit between Waterloo region and pc28¹ÙÍøisn’t perfect, but it’s a massive step that provides choices for how we get around, and represents a huge breakthrough for connecting the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
Brian Doucet is a Canada Research Chair in Planning at the University of Waterloo. Twitter: @bmdoucet
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