Demand for transit outstrips city funding
January 3, 2007

HSR staff believe that many more Hamiltonians would take the bus if the city could find sufficient funds for expansion of the transit system. And that seems to be borne out by the experience in other cities across the country where ridership is growing rapidly.

HSR director Don Hull told the transit steering committee last month that “latent demand throughout the city far exceeds our available capacity” – pointing to several currently underserviced areas such as Rymal Road, Waterdown and Stoney Creek.

Hull was responding to a suggestion by newly-elected councillor Brad Clark that new HSR routes should be tested for a few months to find out if there is a need for them and to decide whether or not they should be made permanent.

“Outstanding service demands, that we believe to be valid service demands, far outstrip our available funding and our availability capacity,” replied Hull. “So it’s more a case we already had the list and the challenge was to trim the list down to something that was affordable and could fit within the available gas tax money.”

Recently released figures published in the Globe and Mail show several cities with increases of more than seven percent in transit riders in the first half of last year, and two Ontario municipal systems reporting jumps of more than eleven percent.

Brampton went up 12.6% in the first half of 2006 and Waterloo climbed 11.4%. Windsor, Halifax, Calgary and Whitehorse all had increases between seven and eight percent in the same period. The average across the country was 3.42 percent. The number of HSR riders went up about 1 percent in the same period.

The Brampton jump followed a 25% increase in bus services in mid-2005 that altered 22 of the existing 30 routes and added 35 new low-floor buses.

“To help reduce gridlock in the city, and reduce emissions from vehicles, we have invested in Brampton Transit with new buses, greater accessibility, increased service and a stronger customer focus,” said Transit Director Suzanne Bass in a media release last month announcing the jump in ridership.

In Waterloo Region, with a population similar to Hamilton, an environmental assessment is underway on a proposed 30 kilometre light rail transit line that would be jointly funded by the province and the federal government.

Both senior levels of government are now transferring portions of their gas tax revenues to municipalities for transit and other infrastructure. Hamilton will receive $11.8 million from provincial gas taxes this year and about $11.9 million from the federal government.

The provincial monies must be used for transit, but the federal dollars can be spent on other projects and council has so far not allocated any of those dollars to transit. The annual payment from the federal gas tax will rise to $32 million by 2010.

The city’s transit steering committee is recommending expanded Beeline express service between Eastgate Mall and McMaster this year, as well as a new service along Centennial Parkway to upper Stoney Creek. The changes will cost $2.3 million. Other gas tax funds have been previously allocated to bus purchases and to avoiding fare hikes. About $1.4 million has also been used to improve DARTS service, partly in response to legal requirements imposed on the city by a human rights settlement.