Grand River Transit changes mean longer walks, faster rides

Grand River Transit's new fall schedule is the biggest change the system has ever seen. And those changesmeanmany people will have to walk further to get to bus stop,but will have a quicker ride once they get on board.

• Grand River Transit's new busschedule
• Here's what the new ION LRT stops could look like

The new schedule eliminates five routes the 15, 17, 19, 24 and25 and incorporates those areas into the existing routes 1, 2 and 20.

It alsoincludes a new iXpress route, the 204, that runs along Victoria Street andHighland Road and creates a new east-west corridor, saidJohn Cicuttin manager of transit development with Grand River Transit.

The new routes mean faster trips to major destinations on primary corridors, but longer walks, Cicuttin said.

"We're deviating less onto local streets," he said.

"For some folks that deviation that we used to do meant they would have a closer walk, but it made travel for everybody else along the route much longer. So we've really been encouraging people to walk a litter further in some cases but to a more frequent, more reliable, more fuller bus service route."

Cicuttin said the changes were met with mixed reviews at public consultations.

"We've heard from some folks that the additional 400, 500 meters would be a hardship,particularly for those who are less mobile; elderly and maybe have mobility issues. But we also heard from people that they really like what we're proposing because it's much more direct."

Despite cuts to some routes, 10 busses were added to the GRT service duringpeak periods, and the changes mean a five per cent increase in service overall whencompared to theFall2014 schedule.

It also paves the way for links with the new ION light railwith bus routes connecting to LRTtransfers at the King andVictoriaand King andCharlesor King andFrederick stations in Kitchener.