Have you ever ridden Huntsville Transit? If not, you’re not alone. Not by a long shot.
The service has limited ridership, in part due to routes that don’t extend beyond the urban core of Huntsville, in part due to the inaccessibility of some stops, and in part due to a schedule that only passes each stop once every two hours.
Huntsville’s bus service runs six days per week and with a total of 28,593 rides in 2016, averaged 91 rides per day. It’s not known how many of those rides were return trips, nor how many individual riders there were. Those rides netted $28,245.89 in fares. The remainder of transit revenue comes from the Provincial Gas Tax, with the Town providing funding to address any shortfall.
In 2018, Huntsville will receive $94,688 from the Provincial Gas Tax, which is down for the third year in a row — the Town received $114,976 in 2017 and $146,000 in 2016. Bracebridge, which launched transit service in 2016, will receive $136,600, up from $130,541 in 2017. The funding is based on both population and ridership.
Of the transit rides in 2016, 6,749 were part of the conventional modified (or specialized) service which provides “origin to destination” service for, but is not limited to, people with disabilities or those who have difficulty accessing the conventional bus. The specialized service is available Monday through Friday and requires booking 24 hours in advance.
Plans are in the works to improve the overall system, but what exactly it will look like is still up in the air.
At a special General Committee meeting on December 7, 2017, staff presented a report recommending a consultant to review the system. “As there has been much discussion around the possible expansion of the existing bus service and the best method to provide door to door service for those in need, staff are now of the opinion that the scope of the initial transit service review has grown to a point that it would be best to obtain the service of a Transit Service consultant to conduct a full review and provide options for council consideration,” noted the report.
“Regarding staff doing (a new) study, we did start it and realized once we got into it, it was way beyond what staff could do,” added Town CAO Denise Corry. “It was time consuming and we really didn’t have that expertise.”
The suggestion for the consultant came from the Accessibility Advisory Committee (AAC). The AAC Chair, Debbie Kirwin, was at the meeting to explain the rationale to councillors.
The results (of the 2016 transit survey) reflected that there is a need to extend the routes and now. It also shows an abysmal number of people using transit to travel to work. Transit is a community service. It should accommodate the needs of everyone.
Debbie Kirwin, chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee
She noted that if a rider misses the bus, “it becomes impossible to stand around for the next bus… a two hour wait in the winter without shelter isn’t an option. There is a great opportunity to increase ridership.”
As for accessibility, both bus design and who a specialized service would be available for needs to be considered, Kirwin said. Huntsville’s current buses use hydraulic lifts whereas newer buses use an extendable access ramp, “which decreases the time to board and disembark. Also consider how much easier it would be for seniors with canes or walkers, parents with strollers and people with groceries (to board the bus).”
But the current conventional modified system is expensive, added Kirwin, costing three to four times per rider what the conventional bus does. Although the service has technically been open to everyone, it wasn’t intended that way, she said.
“It’s not for everyone with a disability, it’s those who can’t use the other bus. The other bus is accessible but the bus stops are so far apart and there is no shelter at the bus stops,” said Kirwin. “It’s an expensive way to go… As the demographic gets bigger with aging society, (ridership is) going to increase substantially, but you want to keep the costs down.” Her included report added, “‘Origin to destination’ service was not designed to provide an inexpensive taxi service to the entire community.”
Finally, she suggested that before the Town looks at expanding the service to outer areas, it should be improved in Huntsville’s urban core first.
The Town recently received federal funding via the Public Transit Infrastructure Fund for a project to improve the sidewalks at bus stops and passenger waiting areas. The Government of Canada is providing $51,000 toward the project, with the municipality providing a matching amount. But more work would be needed to make the stops more accessible and appealing, including the addition of shelters.
Both the Official Plan and the Unity Plan speak to transit service and the need to maximize the benefits in the urban area. Personally I can’t see service to the rural area without having a strong, first-class, dependable service in the urban area.
Debbie Kirwin, chair of the Accessibility Advisory Committee
You can read Kirwin’s report with history of Huntsville’s transit system here (PDF).
Councillor Jonathan Wiebe agreed. “Before we expand we should make the service in the urban core really good and really viable,” he said. “It should almost be the type of thing where because it’s so good it makes so much sense to expand and it’s really going to become very desirable for a lot of people in those expansion areas.”
But Mayor Scott Aitchison noted, “We’ve opened a larger can of worms. One of the things we heard at the (transit) open house was from the resort and hotel community that were interested in seeing if there was a way we could have a service available that their staff could use, particularly housekeeping. They indicated that a lot of those folks live just north of Huntsville. Affordable housing opportunities exist north of Huntsville… Parry Township is growing because there are opportunities to work in Huntsville but they can’t afford to live here.”
Can we use the transit service not just as a social service but as an economic development tool? As a tool that can help the resort community and help the people who need to live just outside our boundaries but work here?
Mayor Scott Aitchison
Deputy Mayor Karin Terziano added that before the Town hires a consultant, it needs to address some of its policies and procedures in house.
“If we are going to write an RFP, we need to focus in on what we need,” agreed Director of Operations and Protective Services, Steve Hernen. “Do we want a one hour loop, do we want a two hour loop? Do we want to go out to Novar, to Port Sydney? Those are the things council is going to have to make some decisions on because if we just go out for an RFP for somebody to design a bus system, you are going to end up with a mixed bag of fruit and we’re all going to be sitting here trying to figure out what to do again.”
Staff were directed to add a consulting fee of $20,000 to the 2018 Draft Transit Budget for Budget Committee consideration to complete a full review of the existing transit services and potential options for expansion. If approved, the cost would be funded through transit reserves.
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There is not now and probably never will be a workable and economic public transit system in the rural parts of Ontario. There simply is not enough population to support it. You can study it to death but this will not change until the population density increases. In other words until the countryside rural areas become densely populated like a “town”.
With this in mind when thinking about the service area and the low ridership, would it make sense to use taxis? Taxis could cut that two hour loop rate way down. Mobile technology could make them even more efficient by combining some rides and self driving cars (if they are ever perfected) might also be part of the solution.
In addition to these benefits taxi service can reach out further and into virtually the entire service area, not needing any fixed route.
If some “other government” funding was available and if the taxi companies gave the town a bit of a “deal” it might be that this scheme could be more flexible, cover a larger area, provide more timely service and at the end of the day, actually cost less than roaming the town with empty buses that seem to meet few peoples real needs.
I have been living in Huntsville for several years now and the first thing I noticed was these 2 white buses running all over with no people on board. I have been in the transportation field most of my life , so when I noticed this, the first thing that came to my mind was $$$$$ signs and how the Town of Huntsville is making no money, no profits to show for. Even today, the story is the same, no riders. Pretty sad, and to expand the service to Novar or Port Sydney or beyond is not the answer. My opinion is to keep it in the Town of Huntsville, build new bus lanes, ( routes ) down size to a Flyer City Coach which is a very comfortable ride in which customers like . I am sure The Mayor of Huntsville would be very proud . imagine, making money.