MTO Approves That Daily Bus From and To Owen Sound

If you religiously listen to the Guelph Politicast (and why wouldn't you), then you will recall March's episode on Regional Transit, which included an interview with Chris Hughes, Manager of Contract Services for the City of Owen Sound. Hughes talked about a proposed daily bus to Guelph from Owen Sound sponsored by some start up money from the Ministry of Transportation Ontario. Follow-up: the MTO has approved it.

GUELPH POLITICAST #117 - Regional Transit

If you don't have a car in Guelph, how do you get to Cambridge? Well, you can get the Greyhound to Kitchener at one of the few times a day it departs and then transfer to Grand River Transit at Sportsworld Drive. You can also take the GO Bus to the Aberfoyle "Park and Ride", wait an hour and get the bus to Kitchener from there. Either way, you could probably walk to Cambridge faster...

LIVE BLOG: Mayor Guthrie's Transit Town Hall

Mayor Cam Guthrie wants to know to know what's wrong with Guelph Transit, and he's gathering people at City Hall tonight to ask directly about it. You can follow the action on Twitter, or through the link below. 

Transit Announces "Tweaks" to Several Routes for the New Year.

It's been a tough couple of month for Transit with the realignment of routes and schedules not going exactly as planned, so they've announced some tweaks for January that might try and alleviate the pressure, or might create some new issues.

Greyhound Cancelling Trips Between Guelph and Kitchener

Bad news for local commuters travelling between K-W and Guelph, especially if you take the Greyhound. Starting on December 10, the bus line will be running fewer trips between the Royal City and Kitchener, merging mid-day and night schedules due to low ridership.

The 41 Conundrum: The University Express Only Runs Uninterrupted One-Third of the Time

To the credit of Guelph Transit, they have gotten better at letting riders know about service interruptions via social media since September. If you've observed that feed carefully though, you will have noticed a definite trend, and it concerns one of the new high-frequency routes meant to service the university corridor along Gordon and help the congestion. The #41 Downtown-University Express, during a one-month period, only ran without service interruptions every one out of three days.

At Least Guelph Transit Uses Social Media...

In the year 2017, if you want to complain, you go to social media. A whole industry there is built on rating what rocks and what sucks, and that includes the way you get around your city. Online, there's often not a lot of love for Guelph Transit, so I was curious, where do other municipalities stand when it comes to interacting with their customers online? It turns of that Guelph Transit is a leader in that regard. 

GUELPH POLITICAST #86 - C.J. Smith, This Crazy Train

Surely, you've gotten on a train or a bus and been aghast at the bad behaviour of some of the people you were riding with: muddy feet on the seats, somebody crowding the entrance or exit, using empty seats as bag racks... People can be rude, but that doesn't mean you have to put up with it, right? That's what C.J. Smith thought in 2010 when she started "This Crazy Train".

High Speed Rail Coming to Guelph, and Heading on to Windsor

Toronto to Windsor in under two hours? That's the promise in this morning's announcement that high speed rail is coming to southern Ontario and the Golden Horseshoe by 2031 at a cost of just over $20 billion. But can it be done in the timeline proposed and for the amount of money suggested, or is the Province of Ontario reaching beyond its grasp?

VIDEO: Guelph Central Station is Complete with Ribbon Cutting

It's been a long, long road since ground was first broken on Guelph Central Station with the demolition of the old Greyhound Bus Terminal (2011), but the hub is now complete with the official ribbon cutting marking the end of renovations at the historic train station. In a ceremony this morning, Mayor Cam Guthrie, members of council, MP Lloyd Longfield, MPP Liz Sandals, and representatives from VIA Rail, Metrolinx, Greyhound and Guelph Transit re-opened the train station, ready to serve the future.

Media Questions, Transit Answers on the Realignment

On Friday morning, the City of Guelph officially began its charm offensive to get transit users ready for the new and amended schedules and routes being proposed for September. At a media brief, Transit General Manager Mike Spicer, Supervisor of Planning and Scheduling Nancy Button, and Route Performance and Scheduling Specialist Laura Catalano-Bragues answered questions about the initial phase of the realignment.

Guelph Transit Looking at Schedule and Route Shake-Up for September

Guelph Transit has a plan to revitalize its system with new schedules, adjusted routes and new services to "match transit service levels with passenger loads." If implemented, the realignment will see some routes renamed, rescheduled or reorganized so that transit will no longer operate on a "pulse and wave" system, but will it be enough to get more people on the bus and get them where they're going in a timely and convenient matter?

GUELPH POLITICAST #60 - Mike Spicer, Guelph Transit General Manager

One-hour holiday service, no peak service in the summer, the cancellation of Free Ride Fridays with the Storm without notice, no service expansion for 2017, the firing of manager Phil Meagher, no restoration of 2015 service... This was not a good year for transit in Guelph, and probably not the plate you want set for you when you sit down at the desk as Guelph Transit's new General Manager.

Guelph Transit Expands to Match Expansion of GO Train Service

Starting Tuesday, GO Transit takes another step to offering all day, two-way commuter service from Toronto to Guelph by offering two additional trains in the morning and two in the afternoon. In order to keep up with that expanded early morning service, Guelph Transit will be expanding its own service with an earlier start time for its shuttle.

GUELPH POLITICAST #44 - Steven Petric, Transit Advocate

Oh what a year it's been for those that take the bus in the city. First, the price of passes went up, then service was cut down to one-hour on statutory holidays, and then the loss of peak service for the summer seemed to throw a lot of things into chaos until city council conceded that they had created a problem in trying to save the city money and put on extra buses. That's a lot to talk about and I'm tired of talking to myself about it.

Confusion Continues as Council Covers Misstep With Transit

The good news for transit users is that some relief will come next week with extra buses being added to routes that are routinely behind schedule. The bad news is consideration of the following question: Just what the heck has the City been doing so far as Transit's management, and why did it end up taking two whole months to fix the problem created when council voted to cut peak service for the summer last December?

Deal Between Metrolinx and CN Paves Way for All-Day GO Train

The Province of Ontario has announced this morning that they've vaulted the biggest hurdle in getting all-day, two-way GO Train service going between Toronto and Kitchener. Metrolinx and CN Rail have reached an agreement, in principle, that will allow those green and white trains to start moving through the region on a more regular basis.

City Council Preview - What's on the Agenda for the May 30 Meeting?

In another special meeting of council this month (and the last), the mayor and councillors will hear back on pending infrastructure projects: Guelph's share of all that investment money that the Federal government announced earlier this year, and creating a stop in the Royal City for the high speed rail line coming sometime in the next 20 years.

Transit Users Not Pleased - Okay Pissed - This First Week Without Peak Service

If users rated your service a 1.8 out of 5 on your own Facebook business page, would you try to make your service better? If your Guelph Transit the answer is 'no'. It's a paradoxic move for the service even as it moves into council mandated budget cuts for the summer and the loss of twice-a-day peak service. The reaction from the public in the last week though has not been good, as the cuts are being blamed for delays and missed transfers by the City's dedicated bus riders.

Longfield Says There's Reason to be Positive About Federal Budget's Impact on Guelph

On Tuesday, the Federal government dropped the first budget under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The big message from the national coverage has been the nearly $30 billion in deficit spending and the billions of dollars in new spending on infrastructure in the hopes to spur economic growth, but since this is a Guelph-specific political site, the question should be asked: how does the Federal budget impact the Royal City?