A Commentary by Doug Draper
It may not be on par with the transit system that was so tragically – one might say stupidly – shut down in this region some 52 years ago, but it’s a start.
Niagara Region's chair Gary Burroughs speaks at launch for 'pilot" region transit system
It is ‘Niagara Region Transit’, what our regional government describes as “an inter-municipal public transit service pilot program,” and hopefully it’s the start of a transit system that will serve every community in Niagara so conveniently, that a good many of us will be happy to leave our cars at home.
As I was driving my car this past September 16 to attend the official launch of Niagara Region Transit, I could not help but think back 52 years ago to when my father took my brother Dave and I on one the last rides on those trolleys that used to glide on the tracks behind my childhood home in Welland.
That trolley system was an important transit service for decades in Niagara, running passengers back and forth between stations in St. Catharines and Thorold and Niagara Falls and Port Colborne and Fort Erie. It fell by the wayside because so many of us back in the booming post-Second World War years got completely caught up in the car culture. With Dinah Shore singing; ‘See the U.S.A. (or in one variation on the song, ‘see the world’ or whatever it was) in a Chevrolet’ in the background, we collectively said to hell with trolleys, trains and buses, and the like. We’ll do our own thing in are own car.
Well some 52 years later, it seems that we are ready to give other ways of getting around another look. And why not? Given the high cost of gasoline and of buying and operating a car, for that matter, maybe a transit service doesn’t seem all that bad after all.
So here I was, a week ago this Friday, attending the official kick-off for Niagara Region Transit, a system that hopes to be the makings of that trolley service that once was or of something much better, for a 21st century that really needs to put the car culture in check.
With the soaring costs of gasoline, and all of the smog and greenhouse gases that comes with it, the gridlock on roads and highways that is costing us mega-millions to maintain and expand, and the ridiculously higher costs of purchasing, servicing and insuring a car or truck for the road, buses and trains are beginning to look far more attractive.
That is certainly a message our regional government has received over the past decade or so when it did surveys or held any kind of public meetings on rebuilding a transit service in Niagara.
One of those who was in tune with that message was Debbie Zimmerman, a regional councillor for Grimsby who was the regional government’s chair a decade ago when efforts began to stitch together some kind of inter-municipal transit system in Niagara.
“Well, well, well, they’ve arrived,” said Zimmerman during the official launch ceremonies for Niagara Region Transit last week. With one of the eight spanking new buses for the system parked behind her and the region’s current chair, Gary Burroughs, sitting at her side, she went on to say that she hopes that this pilot, and it is only a pilot. “will emerge into a full transit system for the future.”
Let’s hope so because at this time, Zimmerman’s home municipality of Grimsby is not being served by it, nor is Burroughs’ home municipality of Niagara-on-the-Lake, as much as Burroughs stated so rightly during the launch that a transit system “enhances the connectivity between communities.”
The worry is that unlike the Waterloo region, for example, which moved fully into putting together a regional transit system that served every city and rural town and hamlet a decade ago, and did it by transferring all responsible for operating the system to the regional level of government, Niagara is still afraid to go fully regional because there are those at the local municipalities who fear a regional takeover of services. So what we have so far is a patchwork job with the region trying to work together with local transit services in Welland, Niagara Falls and St. Catharines to do this pilot thing that really only services the main hubs of the region and leaves communities like Lincoln, Niagara-on-the-Lake, West Lincoln, Wainfleet and Grimsby out, almost completely.
On top of that, there are only eight new Niagara Region Transit buses running back and forth between major hubs in the communities being served, and they don’t run all night and they don’t run on Sunday.
So this “pilot program” is running on a bit of a shoestring and let’s hope it does not turn out to be a recipe for failure.
The message in the meantime, for all transit supporters, is use it or lose it. You ain’t going to find transit-friendly columnists like me advocating for public transit again if you let this attempt at a new regional transit system die.
(Share your views on this post below. Remember that we only post comments from individuals or groups willing to share their real names.)
Niagara At Large 
I’ve already used it four times. Next week, I will be on it again. People need to find out about this. I was at the bus terminal the other night, and the loudspeaker read, “Greyhound, going to Niagara Falls”. So some people might be paying more money to go to Niagara Falls, so I announced loudly that there was a bus just outside the terminal that was ALSO going to Niagara Falls for $5.00 with a free transfer once one gets to the Falls … I was lucky I didn’t get kicked out of the terminal. I need to spread the news about this far and wide, because many people I talk to did not even know about these buses.
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I haven’t quite decided if this is a good idea or not. (BTW, anything is better than nothing for people who don’t have cars!)
Niagara Region does NOT have the population density to justify rapid transit, and perhaps not even mass transit (busses). Our 3 larger cities do however, and are succeeding fairly well, because they know the needs of their local people which St.Kitts-headquartered Regional people wouldn’t.
For our smaller towns and rural areas however, we should explore what Niagara-On-The-Lake has done by subsidising private taxis to transport people who call in to a central dispatcher to be picked up on demand and delivered to transit hubs. This would allow taxpayers in our small towns and townships to be served as well by the Regional Transit their taxes pay to operate….
-w-
In addition, have you ever considered the paradox of
– taxing businesses like Greyhound and Coach Canada,
– in order to provide cheap public transit (GO Bus or Regional Bus)
– to compete with them and drive them out of business,
– so that they are no longer there to pay the taxes that pay for transit…?
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I think Niagara Region Transit is long overdue. However, as Angela stated above, no one really knows about it. It started fairly quietly, and hasn’t really been advertised much. For example, last year I attended a feedback session for a proposed regional transit system. I left my email and gave my feedback, however I wasn’t contacted about the launch of it. I find it odd that the people planning this system didn’t bother to contact people that they know are interested in it!
Its unfortunate that this transit system seems doomed to fail. I for one am doing my part, however. I live in St. Catharines and work in Welland, and used to get rides to work with a co-worker. As soon as I found out about the system (by seeing a regional transit bus on the road on the way home from work one day), I immediately made it my only work transportation option, even though it costs me 2.5 times more per week than my previous ride. I know that if this system is not supported, it will go under.
I hope people start to leave their cars at home and take transit, but this seems doubtful to me. People in this area have become hopelessly dependent on their personal vehicles; ingrained from early adulthood that they have no freedom of movement without a personal vehicle. Add to that the investment of money into said vehicle, and there will be few who will leave their cars behind to take transit instead.
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I went back on the regional buses again today and asked the driver if there is an increase in business and he said it was becoming more steady. I noted the first time my husband and I were on, we were alone. Today, we were both on again and there were five others on, going to Welland. I am told by others in other communities that have developed new transit services that it might take up to a year to build a full ridership, as well as determine how to best service the riders (e.g. what hours, routes, etc.).
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Just for the record, the transit route between St. Catharines and Welland is not a new bus route. There’s been a bus running this route for several years and it was very successful transporting student to Niagara College in Welland and Brock University in St. Catharines. I believe the cost before the Region took over was about $3.50.
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Matthew, but that bus route took wa-a-a-a-a-ay longer than the one now and I couldn’t stand it. To get to my destination in Welland by 10:00 a.m. by the way the routes worked, I would have to leave my house by 6:30 a,m to get to Welland after boarding four buses by 8:30 a.m. and sit on my hands for 1 1/2 hours before I needed to go in to the court. That was no good for me. It’s a route that worked for students because students had particular hours when they needed to be in class, and they did not match the commuters’ needs. In the current case, I only have to board one bus from my house and another to Welland, which is acceptable and the route is way more direct.
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