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Public transportation for New Tecumseth

June 27, 2013   ·   0 Comments

A deposition was made recently by Alan Masters of Beeton, to council regarding the need to put together a public transit plan for New Tecumseth. Mr. Masters outlined that Across Canada, cities and towns are identifying public transit as a vital component not only for their transportation but economic and environmental strategic plans. The latest government information states: “Canada’s transit systems have been increasing their investment in transit service to match population growth; investments have been rewarded with an increase in transit ridership reaching historical highs”. It was announced on April 1, 2009, the federal Gas Tax Transfers to support municipal infrastructure will remain beyond 2014 to provide municipalities with stable funding for long-term infrastructure priorities such as water, wastewater and solid waste infrastructure and public transit, among other items.

“The Town has received numerous requests and ideas previously but now needs to get serious about a plan for public transit for New Tecumseth said Masters. “Currently the Town has no plan but should have under section 6.0 of the current strategic plan”.

Masters said, “We are currently subsidizing our local taxi service for between $100,000 and $140,000 for identified pick ups, for elderly and other members of the public requiring transportation. However; today we see our town and our neighbouring towns starting to grow around us. Our policy under section 6.0 of our Town Strategic Plan, states we should have a public transit plan to meet the current and future needs of our communities. I know this is no small task however; we have a responsibility to start somewhere! We can ‘Think Big but Start Small!’  I know some questions are:

• Why should we even get into the game if everyone drives?

• How many people will use transit?

• What type of bus should we buy?

• How do we start a service? Who will run it?

• How do we get all parties to buy-in?

We need to look at today’s transit requirements with a long term view of how we see our town by year 2030 and beyond, build our plan based on these projections. Recently a service was started between Barrie, Angus and Camp Borden, can that bus come down to New Tecumseth? The Town of Bradford has already gone thru this process and I know we can follow their lead.”

“Initially we should look at our town service route requirements and connectivity to the three villages, clubs, associations, tourism, business’s and stores ect. and then next how we will connect to the 400 corridors for Go Transit, buses, trains and Kiss & Ride. The majority of our commuters drive and the costs are going up and up, in particular the City of Toronto is now thinking of ways to tax commuters coming into the city! The better we plan to utilize public transit, the greater the opportunity to leave our car at home in the future. This possibility has now moved even closer as The Town of Bradford Transit Implementation Plan 2013 has now been put into action. The following is their statement:

“The Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury (BWG) is a small sized community, with about 25,000 residents, that has limited inter-regional public transit service offered by GO Transit. By 2031, the Town is predicted to reach a build-out population of more than 50,000 residents. Given the rising costs of private, automobile-based transportation and lack of alternatives, the Town has implemented a public transit service based upon the responses from Town residents in a March 2011 public meeting.” Note, Bradford’s populous projections are not unlike TNT’s actually, which is more than Bradford’s at 60,000.

Bradford’s new public transit system will start this fall and has Bond Head as a pick up point. If TNT were able have something in place for local transportation I’m sure we could tie into the Bond Head point giving TNT commuters an opportunity to utilize the Go Train system thru Bradford’s transit system. Bradford’s initial budget to operate their transit system is $160,000 (not including capital purchase) they will be using government grants and road tax transfer initiatives to support their program going forward and setting meaningful fares. Such a public transit system will open up many opportunities in the future for our communities, both for the business and public sectors.”

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