Council Approves Doubling Windsor Transit [[over 8 years)

**Canadian Visitor** · January-25-20, 10:06 AM

Article in the Windsor Star:

https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...ative-overhaul

Changing out radial routes for grid-service.

Fleet to grow from 115 to 165 buses.

Routes from 13 to 23

Budget from 35M to 70M over 8 years.

Ridership expected to increase not less than 50% and potentially up to 100%

**stasu1213** · January-25-20, 04:34 PM

Typical

**Canadian Visitor** · January-25-20, 05:44 PM

^^^ huh?

**MrMichigan** · January-26-20, 07:55 PM

Is there enough demand for light rail in Windsor?

**Canadian Visitor** · January-26-20, 09:56 PM

Originally Posted by MrMichigan

Is there enough demand for light rail in Windsor?

Close, but questionable.

The City took a very cursory look at a LRT linking the University to Downtown a few years back.

The numbers weren't terrible, but they weren't a home run either.

Even a recent look at BRT suggested the numbers weren't there; yet.

Though it needs to be said Windsor Transit has been experiencing a significant uptick in riders recently which is generating the support for this plan.

The LRT may yet be revisited, but I think they need to see sizable growth before that, at least 50%

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...nsit-1.5376465

**MrMichigan** · January-27-20, 12:19 AM

Originally Posted by Canadian Visitor

Close, but questionable.

The LRT may yet be revisited, but I think they need to see sizable growth before that, at least 50%

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/winds...nsit-1.5376465

That would be nice, along with a high-speed line to Toronto that Detroit can someday connect to.

**masterblaster** · January-28-20, 10:08 AM

This is a signficant investment!

There is a forum on the reddit website for Windsor, and many forum participants complain about the Transit Windsor buses, stating they chronically arrive late, don't have enough frequency, don't go far enough into the 'burbs, and the bus lines that are heavily relied upon by University students are overcrowded.

One disappointing aspect of this plan is the less emphasis on a hub-and-spoke, centered around getting to/from downtown. It seems like a further marginalization of downtown. Windsor-Essex residents seem to have a low regard for their downtown, viewing it as the domain of drug addicts and homeless people. Hopefully, this sentiment will be reversed, and it can become a true jobs and cultural powerhouse for the region.

**Canadian Visitor** · January-28-20, 04:16 PM

Originally Posted by masterblaster

One disappointing aspect of this plan is the less emphasis on a hub-and-spoke, centered around getting to/from downtown. It seems like a further marginalization of downtown.

I'm not inclined to draw that conclusion.

Most successful public transit systems are not hub and spoke.

Toronto's TTC is grid-based.

Its simply a more efficient model.

Strict hub and spoke promotes one-trip type at the expense of all the others.

It makes a trip anywhere other than to/from the hub longer than it needs to be.

It wastes a lot of vehicle/driver hours with vehicles going where the demand isn't.

****

But this won't actually result in materially less service in the core, because the plan doubles over-all service.

Windsor-Essex residents seem to have a low regard for their downtown, viewing it as the domain of drug addicts and homeless people. Hopefully, this sentiment will be reversed, and it can become a true jobs and cultural powerhouse for the region.

That's a bit extreme, the DT Windsor population is growing w/the University adding a downtown campus and residence and St.Clair College doing the same.

From this article: https://windsorstar.com/news/local-n...opment-right-2

The city has committed $5 million to transform the street, potentially narrowing it and adding landscaped boulevards and separate bike lanes. It’s also negotiating with Canadian Pacific Railway for surface rights to the ravine along the top of the rail tunnel for a potential cool linear park.

Also it has put up several City owned parcels near downtown for requests for expressions of interest.

In which the City is soliciting development proposals, if it likes the ideas submitted by reputable proponents it will negotiate terms.

They apparently have 4 credible proposals for the former Grace Hospital site.
Yes DT Windsor needs a boost, but I think that's already underway and looking fairly positive, albeit it at an early stage.

**Tig3rzhark** · January-28-20, 08:50 PM

I hope that Transit Windsor makes the Tunnel Bus run 24/7. If that were to happen, I would be visiting it more often.

I saw that it would be easier to go by bus to a place there to play Magic: The Gathering, a card game I like to play in person.