London Transit shifts gears as ridership hits highest level in two years
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London Transit is boosting almost all its less-frequent routes where buses travel just once every hour as part of 2022 upgrades.
Those improvements — once in doubt because of driver shortages, supply chain tie-ups and budget uncertainties — are expected to be approved by the London Transit Commission (LTC) Wednesday and rolled out in September.
The priority is improving how often buses run on London’s busiest streets.
“A 60-minute frequency, that’s just not a viable service, if someone misses a bus and has to wait an hour for the next one,” LTC general manager Kelly Paleczny said.
If the proposed 2022 improvements take effect later this year as planned, all routes on main corridors will be operating more than once an hour. A few others will still run every 60 minutes.
“It’s going to result in a system-wide better service, better connections, more options for people. Coming out of the pandemic, we see certainly the economy picking up, people out looking for work, and we want to make sure the service out there is as attractive as it can be,” Paleczny said.
“We saw this as a strategy to get back some of that ridership that we lost as well.”
Ridership has rebounded to about 60 per cent of what’s normal in March, the highest it’s been since the start of the pandemic, but still well below typical levels.
A total of six routes are on the list for frequency improvements this year.
Housekeeping changes are planned for another two routes, lengthening the round-trip time because it can’t be completed in the time allotted. That kind of adjustment means buses that frequently run late will be more closely aligned with route times, and therefore more reliable.
“Our on-time reliability has always been a key priority for us and customers. When we see routes that are struggling, we make every effort (to adjust). Every year in our service plan there are a couple of these,” Paleczny said.
This year’s growth also includes a new branch off Route 36 to serve industrial plants on Robin’s Hill Road.
Improvements planned for last year, which were stalled several times because of pandemic and driver recruitment challenges, are now expected to roll out beginning in May.
That includes the long-awaited industrial service, connecting public transit riders with jobs in Innovation Park.
Challenges plaguing the transit agency throughout the fall and winter have eased somewhat, with senior government funding to address COVID-19 costs extended through to the end of the year, and more than half the buses sidelined by supply chain delays now back on the road.
Driver shortages had been an ongoing issue. Another training class of six new drivers is about to graduate and a another class of six begins early April.
“That will get us where we need to be to get back to full service and start implementing 2021 improvements,” Paleczny said.
mstacey@postmedia.com
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