College students, Amherstburg to get transit services boost

Some big additions to Transit Windsor are going before council Monday, one for St. Clair College students and the other, a foot in the door for the Town of Amherstburg.

The “Saints Pass” will give students universal access to city buses for $274 for the entire year.

“It’s another service so we could say that we provide to our students to help them to keep costs low,” said Ryan Peebles, the executive director of the St. Clair College Student Representative Council.

Forty per cent of students can opt out if they travel by car or aren’t near a transit line.

The three-year pilot project will also add an estimated $1.7 million in annual revenue for the city.

“It really benefits the students because they get they get unlimited ridership for a very reasonable price and the benefits transit Windsor because of the ridership that it generates and additional revenues,” said Tyson Cragg, the executive director of Transit Windsor.

Another big addition to service will take public transportation to Amherstburg for the first time in decades.

“We’re finally are going to give it a go starting this September,” said Amherstburg Mayor, Aldo DiCarlo.

The two-year pilot for route 605 will send three busses a day, morning, afternoon and evening, for the round trip to Amherstburg for $4.75 each way.

The service will run seven days a week and Mayor Aldo DiCarlo believes it will be great for students, seniors, and tourists — who he says have been pushing for the service.

“They say now I can just take a bus to one of your events and take the bus home and not have to worry about parking,” said DiCarlo. “Or as some people like to do enjoy a few beverages and not have to worry about you know, how they’re getting home and that that I think is fantastic.”

Leamington and LaSalle already have agreements with Transit Windsor, and Amherstburg is just the latest municipality to give transit a try.

“And then honestly, I think the next step would probably be that loop that I think everybody's been looking for is you know, across one shore across the other and then all the way back around again,” said DiCarlo.

Executive director Tyson Cragg hopes the critical mass builds and is willing to talk to any municipality about coming on board.

“My vision my goal really would be to see a fully regional transit system and but it's one step at a time,” Cragg said.

The city’s transit service is inching back from pandemic lows. with ridership now at 70 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Cragg.

September will bring adjustments to the Central 3 and Ottawa 4 lines and a return to full schedules.

“Come the fall, I'm very optimistic that we're going to be back… maybe not back to pre-pandemic levels, but certainly at a level where from a revenue and ridership perspective, we're becoming sustainable,” Cragg said