Bruce County council received a report about the feasibility of an integrated regional transit service that would connect Bruce, Grey, Dufferin, and Wellington counties.
The report was presented by Dennis Carr from Dillon Consulting.
He told council that through their research, they got a sense of where people are going, including looking at their origin and destination.
A lot of signs pointed to Owen Sound being a central hub for a lot of travellers looking to got to major destinations, including Kitchener-Waterloo and the Greater Toronto Area.
“Owen Sound being sort of that primary hub in the north which does have that impact to Bruce, we’ve sort of identified two potential corridors that will get you into the GTA and the GO network,” he explained. “So that Guelph-Owen Sound Corridor that gets you into the City of Guelph – a major urban centre, as well as connection to the GO train network, which provides links to Toronto and Kitchener.”
Carr added that there were other connections that are well-travelled.
“We also have that Kincardine to Owen Sound connection which connects a couple of sort of larger communities within Bruce County: Kincardine, Port Elgin, Southampton to Owen Sound, where we see some of that demand and the potential for reverse trips as well. We also identified a couple of other corridors, again starting with Owen Sound, a hub, that sort of connection to Collingwood as well, which gets you into Simcoe County which has its own regional transit network.”
Carr said that his team held pop-up meetings at different events to get community feedback looking to what people are looking for when it comes to regional transit.
They held open houses at an Owen Sound Attack Game, Grey Bruce Farmers Week, the Flesherton Farmers Market, at Arthur Arena during a public skate, a virtual open house, and two other community consultations in Orangeville.
During those open house events and community pop-ups, Carr and his team received 3,790 survey responses.
The report included what people are looking for in transit service.
Sixty-seven percent of respondents want frequent and reliable service, 56 percent are looking for seamless connections to other transit.
Other priorities include improved coverage to all residents, easy trip planning tools, low fares, and seamless connection to local transit services.
Carr told council that it was important to be able to meet the demand of connectivity, with moving between transit hubs and providing riders with easy access to other services.
He added, “The first is to look at the opportunity of expanding the service area, into areas where SMART doesn’t currently operate.”
There is still more work to be done, as Carr and his team are now looking to complete a draft plan before another round of community engagement.
The study is the result of council’s previous approval of the Ontario Transit Investment Fund (OTIF) agreement, which enabled the four partner counties to begin assessing the feasibility of a unified regional transit network.
According to the timeline in the report, Carr and his team are expected to have a presentation ready for council in May.