A Commentary by Doug Draper
If we need yet another reason why there should be a change in governance in this region, right up to and including the possibility of amalgamating all 12 local municipalities into one ‘City of Niagara’, take a look at the stumbling around we are doing with a service so vital as public transit.
Photo by Doug Draper
You may or may not know that as of this past September, we now have an “inter-municipal public transit service” in Niagara. It is all but a secret, except for the noble attempts of the regional government’s communication department to spread the word around through newsletters, pamphlets and so on. But this is where we have to be carefull and almost get down to a whisper about regional buses, lest we offend the parochial interests of our local municipalities.
We have to call “Niagara Region Transit” an “inter-municipal transit system” instead of a regional transit system because if we don’t, it might give local municipal transit operators the idea that we might want to start a full-speed-ahead regional transit system in Niagara. And wouldn’t that be a terrible idea in a region where we have increasing numbers of young people, without cars, attending growing post-secondary institutions called Brock University and Niagara College, and we have growing numbers of aging people in this region who need transit because they can no longer have a significant other in their home who drives cars.
Yet never mind that. There are apparently too many important people at the local level who are running transit systems in St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls who may object to a regional transit system of the type other Ontario regions like Waterloo, York and Durham have. So we should simply bow to them.
That is not to say we may have very good transit managers at this local levels. They may be among the best in the country for all I know. But why can’t we at long last get back to where we were a half century ago with the trollies in Niagara, and have a really good regional transit system in Niagara?
The patchwork system the regional government has tried to set up now, under the yoke of local transit authorities, seems doomed to failure. Launched as Niagara Region Transit early this past September, you can watch these big and long Niagara Region Transit buses role by with less than five people on them at a time. I have made a point of watching them for the past few months and I count four, maybe five or six, people on them at a time. I watched two of them pulling into the Pen Centre in St. Catharines this week – a major shopping centre at the heart of the holiday shopping season – with less than eight people on them apiece.
One of the problems may be the ridiculous agreement that was reached to charge people $5 per one-way trip if they take a regional bus as opposed to something like two bucks for a local bus ride. It may also have something to do with the fact that the buses the region is trying to schedule run so infrequent to places people need to go that they are not convenient.
Let me just refer back to a moment to the transit system in Waterloo, in a region that has a regional and local governments like ours and yet decided to leave transit to the regional government tier. Within a matter of a couple of years, it more than doubled ridership on public transit and it has received subsidies from the provincial government for expanding its transit system that Niagara could only dream of.
What is wrong with us here? Why can’t we get our act together on something so vitial as public transit?
Earlier this month, a motion was placed on the regional council table by Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey – one that was forcefully supported by Grimbsy regional councilor Debbie Zimmerman, a transit supporter and former regional chair – to allow college and university students on the region’s buses with the bus passes they pay for through their tuitions. But even a decision on that has been delayed due to concerns that using the passes there might mean diluting how much of the money students pay go to local bus services.
Yet gee I’m sorry, shouldn’t we be looking at building the best region-wide transit system for all of our residents, young and old and everyone in between?
Maybe the only way we can do that is to kill the local municipalities and have one Niagara government. Given the continued gridlock we have to put up with over services like transit and economic development, it is looking like a better idea all of the time.
(Niagara At Large invites you to share your views on this post below. Join the debate.)
Niagara At Large 
I do not for 1 second think any of those politicians will vote themselves out of office. The fox has the keys to the henhouse.
LikeLike
I am quite relieved that regional transit has begun to operate. I recently used the service to attend a public consultation on a Niagara regional culture strategy which began around 9:15 am in Welland. Had the service not been available, I would have run the risk of being soaked in wet rain by cycling to it. I was able to get the meeting easily because of regional transit and was it seems, the first person to arrive. What seems odd about the set up however, is that service ends at 8pm. This means that the street railway of the 1950s, still provided better service than what can be mustered today.
LikeLike
Our cousins across the river have a system called the NFTA an authority with a mandate to co-ordinate transit across al the Towns and cities on the Niagara Frontier, they service the Airports as well, also streetcars, my Town Fort Erie has a bus that comes once an hour serves Ridgeway and Fort Erie , Black Creek and Stevensville are shut out, 800 seniors citizens at the Black Creek Leisure Park have no service either, the outfit running this farcical bus service is a moving company, This week a new company from Vaughan with new ideas got a contract, and new ways of accessing the system for seniors and young people. Rick Shuler voted against the deal a person in my opinion, has never ever used a bus in his life.when I lived in Europe I used trains and busses, also ferries all the time.
LikeLike
As someone who doesn’t drive, more regional transit the better (so long as they have bike racks).
But as for an amalgamated Niagara? I shutter to think. One just has to look at the utter mess amalgamation has caused for Toronto.
Rob Ford is outright ignoring the people of Toronto (the ACTUAL city of Toronto), while bending over backwards for those in the ‘burbs.
I look at Vancouver where the municipalities are separate from one another, and the those who live in Vancouver (twice) voted for a mayor who wants to put more into bike lanes and transit, while those living outside of Vancouver (Richmond, New West, Maple Ridge, etc.) would rather see a mayor in Vancouver who strictly caters to motorists.
Would the people of Fort Erie or more rural parts of Niagara support a mayor who is pro-transit/bike/pedestrian? I doubt it
Also one thing to keep in mind with the Waterloo region, it’s easier to have buses and LRT’s running from Waterloo to Cambridge through Kitchener. It’s pretty well a “straight line” from Waterloo to Cambridge.
There has also been a lot of protest in the recent months to the regions plan for LRTs and more into transit, to the point I believe their LRT plans are on hold.
As bad as some think car-dependence is in Niagara, is pales in comparison to Waterloo, which is the highest in Ontario, and top 5 in the country.
LikeLike
Doug, I’ve always appreciate your newspaper and the thoughtful articles you write, but I had a hard time agreeing with you on this one.
“It is all but a secret, except for the noble attempts of the regional government’s communication” – I’ve heard about the bus system several times on the radio, seen numerous newspaper articles about it. At work I counted 10 emails my company sent me mentioning the service. I’ve also seen these buses in real life driving on the road. How exactly is this bus service a secret? Why is the communication department “noble” – are they working as volunteers?
I think we need to take an honest look at the service being provided. I would never ask someone to spend over 2 hours a day on a bus to get to work. And for some people spending $10 dollars a day could eat up 10% of their personal income.
If there’s a problem with the New Regional Transit System running a competing service with the local transit systems, I’m not surprised. But this was the Region’s decision to do this. It would have been a lot cheaper to pay the local transits to run these extra routes for a while to grow the business first and see if people really wanted the service.
If I’m reading your article right, it looks like the Niagara Region has an embarrassing situation on it’s hands right now. Millions of dollars of taxpayer’s money was spent on this project saying. It was relentlessly advertised so its pretty high profile too. Right now the region needs a way out and they’ve settled on the mayors of Niagara Falls, Welland and St. Catharines as the culprits. This article should have been called, “Niagara’s Axis of Evil and the Bus to Nowhere”. – As always with love 🙂
LikeLike
Matthew, the system previously set up for the students took TWO HOURS just ONE way for me. Many of us do not have that kind of time and wherewithal. I would have no choice but to then demand that the region pay my taxi fares when I have to travel inter-city for work, or maybe have one of those car addled politicians drive me around as a volunteer chauffeur. The current system takes under two hours for BOTH ways and the route is more pleasant, I don’t have to keep jumping off one bus and wait for another in the rain, and then hop another three times after board when I leave home.
LikeLike