GUELPH POLITICAST #410 – Buses and Trains Wanted!

As listeners familiar with the work of Guelph Politico are aware, improved transit is a pretty big part of the mission, and more often than not, we’re talking about local transit. But did you know that transit can take you to places outside of Guelph’s urban boundaries? This is somewhat tricky because regional transit, both to and from Guelph, is lacking, and we're not alone. That’s where a new advocacy group wants to make a difference.

Before looking at the pan regional picture, let’s look at what you have when it comes to getting out of Guelph on a bus or a train. First, you’ve got the Kitchener Line GO Train. Then there are several GO bus routes including ones to Toronto, Milton, Mississauga, Hamilton and Waterloo. There’s also RideWell and the Guelph Owen Sound Transit but almost all those options don’t run on the weekend.

What’s weird is that the demand is clearly there for more service. The Hamilton-Waterloo bus was an immediate success, and social media is littered with pictures of packed bus platforms at the Mount Pleasant GO Station on the weekends as people wait to head further west. Those of us who live at the far end of the GTHA and beyond continue to struggle, and are often left to our own devices to fill the gaps, plus no one’s looking at the broader regional picture...

...Until now. This week, we're joined by Haadhi Faizal, the founder of the advocacy group, More Transit Southern Ontario, who's going to talk about the gaps in regional transit, the difficulties of trying to pick your battles when there are so many, and how trying to co-ordinate between the municipal transit systems is part of the problem. He will also talk about building density around transit stations, and how we can get more people involved in the fight for more and better transit.

So let's talk about more buses and trains on this week's Guelph Politicast!

You can learn more about More Transit Southern Ontario at their website or by following them on @MoreTransitSO on Twitter and YouTube. In terms of local regional transit expansion, there’s an open house for the business cases to build a rail line connecting Union Station and Cambridge through Guelph on Thursday March 21 from 6 to 8 pm at City Hall. There’s a virtual meeting on Tuesday March 19 too, and you can get all that information at engagewr.ca.

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