On New Years day, riders of Guelph Transit were introduced to the city’s new transit system, including modified routes, route numbers and a change in service frequency.

The most notable change featured is the new route numbers. Gone are the days of the 52 University-Kortright. Welcome the East and West Loops. Although many of the routes have only slightly changed, the revamped numbering system reflects that some great changes have taken place.

The East and West Loops, for example, are offshoots of the former Perimeter route. That route, the 70A/B, used to depart from the University Centre bus loop and run both clockwise and counter-clockwise around the outside of the city. That has been broken in half, with them each doing smaller loops which meet both at the University Centre and at the transit hub at St. George’s Square, with ‘A’ and ‘B’ routes again running in opposite directions around the circuit. These routes, the 2 and 3, are now the primary route running between campus and downtown, replacing the 51, 52 and 54.

Although replacing three routes with only two may seem like it could negatively impact service, that’s not what Guelph Transit expects to take place, and one of the ways they’ve hoped to combat this is by altering the service schedule. While the old system included 20-minute daytime and 30-minute evening and early morning service, the new schedule is broken into 15-minute service during peak usage times and 30-minute service schedules outside of this, an attempt to accommodate passenger frequency.

“We […] noted that our demand in terms of when our riders took the buses was very peaked. We had high demand in the morning and high demand in the middle of the afternoon to early evening,” said Michael Anders, general manger of Guelph Transit and Community Connectivity. “In the midday we didn’t have a lot of riders on our vehicles. It wasn’t a very efficient use of [resources].”

“That’s how we came up with the peak service concept,” he continued. “We are allocating our resources much more efficiently, much more than running 20 minute service all day long.”

In addition to monitoring ridership, Guelph Transit also attempted to communicate with its riders to gather information not just on how many people are riding the bus and when, but also how the buses are used.

“We had an extensive public consultation process, including students from the University of Guelph. We had public meetings, we had surveys, we had personal interviews, we did surveys on the buses, we did passenger counts. We did a variety of things,” said Anders. “That was part of the process in developing this.”

Although outreach was done to some riders, many were left confused, angry and lost trying to navigate the new system. Lines formed behind Transit employees stationed at St. George’s Square who were helping assist riders who were trying to figure out just which bus would get them where they needed to go, and many drivers were left scanning through handouts and map books in order to help passengers navigate their way through the routes.

It was especially alarming for many students, who returned to the city after the winter break to an entirely new system already underway.

Guelph Transit tried to prepare for this, and has staffed the University Centre similarly to how it has St. George’s Square.

“What we’re trying to do right now, especially since this is the first week the university is back, is have a number of our staff members at the University Centre this week watching our operations in terms of volume of activity, when the buses are getting in and out and so on and so forth,” said Anders. “We’ll be tweaking our service a little bit based on the on-street experience that we’re getting.”

Monitoring the new service is important for ascertaining whether or not any changes need to be made in the near future, but so is Guelph Transit getting feedback from the riders.

Anders made a point of requesting that students contact Guelph Transit via phone or email with any questions or other issues.

“Students seem to pick it up fairly quickly, what the new bus numbers are and the routes that were serving their areas, but if they do have any questions, please give us feedback,” said Anders. “We want the feedback because we want to provide the highest level service we can.”

Derek Alton, the CSA local affairs commissioner, is the undergraduate student community’s liaison with Guelph Transit and sits on the transit committee with Anders as well as representatives from the GSA and their business managers. That committee will be meeting on Jan. 12, with the new system and reports of student experiences on it likely to be brought up.

Alton suggests that any issues students face with the new system should be emailed to both him and Guelph Transit, ensuring both are notified.

More information about routes, including schedules and maps, can be found at guelphtransit.ca.

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