Grand River Transit wants input on possible expansion of service for rural townships

Grand River Transit is looking ahead at the next five years with plans to potentially expand transit services into the region's townships:Woolwich, Wellesley, North Dumfries and Wilmot.

Adam Fraser,principle planner with GRT, is leading a project to hear directly from residents about what they think public transit service should look like in rural areas.The goal is give residents better access to essential services and job opportunities.

"We are early days, but ifwe look at what we're proposing, it's not just big ideas. We've proposed and mapped potential fixed routes and potential on demand transit options to show the community, to help guide what's possible," he said.

Fraser has already helped host virtual sessions focused on transit services for Wilmot and Wellesley. A virtual sessionfor North Dumfries will take place on Tuesdayand there will be one focused on Woolwich happening on Wednesday.

He says they're hoping to hear from everyone in Waterloo region.

"There are folks who may live in Waterloo, Kitchener, Cambridge, who work in a township and other some employment areas. There are different commuting patterns anddifferent origins and destinations," he said."[We want to hear from] anyone that might be affected ormight benefit from having transit accessin our townships."

Fraser says they have already received lots of feedback from the sessions they hosted in Wilmot and Wellesley.

"Some are quite eager saying finally, thank you, when will this be implemented? We're excited with that, too, but we'll have to see. We're really early days in collecting feedback here," he said.

"We're really just happy to receive anything the community wants to provide us to help inform how we move forward."

He says they are two types of transit services proposed for the townships: fixed-route transit and on-demand transit.

Fixed-route transit is how public transit buses are typically known to run, with a regular route and daily schedule. On-demand transit is not limited by a fixed route or schedule and can be changed according to trip requests made by passengers who book the ride on an as-per-need basis.

Few existingtransit service for townships

Grand River Transit says there are currently only a few buses that go to township areas.

Wilmot has Route 77, a flex-route service that can take riders to The Boardwalk in Kitchener-Waterloo. Service for passenger-requested flex stops is based on availability and not guaranteed.

Woolwich has Route 21, a fixed-route service that goesto St. Jacobs and Conestoga Station. There's also an on-demand service, Route 79, that drops people off at Bingemans Centre, the Kitchener GO station and Central station in Kitchener.

There is currently no transit service in Wellesley or North Dumfries outside of specialized service for mobility-impaired residents through the MobilityPLUS program.