As the new school year started, LTC announced changes to its bus routes. 41 of 43 routes have been fully changed and additional bus routes have been added. Two express routes #93 and #94 have been added connecting downtown to Western’s campus and the #27 runs through Western to Fanshawe campus.
Katie Burns the LTC Planning Director says that the changes are a part of the 5-year service plan where they are trying to match transit service with the demand on the street. They are calling it ‘right-sizing’ which hopes to solve issues of overcrowding and congestion on the street. “These buses are running more frequently and during the AM and PM peak hours, they run every 10 mins.” With these changes, LTC hopes to get people out of their cars and use transit a little bit more.
The largest demographic of ridership comes from students both at Fanshawe and Western. Amy Scott, a student at both school says that these changes have made her commute a lot more tolerable. “I live on Oxford and Wharncliffe so the new express buses come right to my front door so can’t complain about that and the #90 express to Fanshawe is only a three min walk to the bus stop.” She is excited about the changes and is also hoping to start riding her bike as on the streets are expected to see a decrease in cars.
Students at both institutes recieve a bus pass when they pay their tuition. Cat Dunne, Western University Student Council’s Vice President says, “enhancing the services for students has been an advocacy priority” and through negotiations, buses like the #2 and #102 will have extended service hours until 1 am. With these changes, Western is moving towards a more pedestrian friendly campus and hopes to get people to use the buses more than their cars.
Currently, the changes are under review and additional changes are to come in November. Bus times and updates can be found on LTC’s website, on their twitter page, where they have hourly updates on changes, detours or delays and the LTWatch app.
