Belleville Transit staff will be looking at setting up an on-demand public bus service in the heavily populated area of south Thurlow ward just north of the 401.
Yesterday (Wednesday), the Transit Advisory Committee saw Thurlow survey statistics that showed about half of the over 2,000 respondents would use public transit at least occasionally. That 50/50 split was enough for the committee to unanimously agree that running some sort of service to south Thurlow needed further investigation.
Over 5,000 surveys were mailed out to Thurlow residents and there was an online version as well.
Transit Operations Manager Paul Buck said almost all of the respondents did not agree with any form of property tax increase to pay for the service so he’d be looking at ways to keep costs down.
A smaller 22 foot bus instead of a full size 40 foot bus would be much cheaper, as would an on-demand service instead of a fixed route one.
Another option under consideration would be charging the regular bus fare ($2.50) and adding a zone charge of one dollar or more to make the service self sustaining. Many of the respondents who stated they would use the service at least occasionally said they’d pay a one dollar zone charge.
A report on options to run a transit service in south Thurlow ward will come to a future Transit Advisory Committee meeting.
