Both Western and Fanshawe students have free access to use LTC busses and while during a normal school year students would use their bus pass daily. But because of the pandemic, fewer people are using the bus in general, but there has been a bigger drop in student usage.
LTC ridership is down 50% from last year with a large part of that being students who did not come back to London for school. Kelly Paleczny is the General Manager of the LTC, she spoke more on student ridership drops on the LTC.
“The students that have passed are making use of them probably not to the same level that they historically and there’s obviously not as many students participating in the program as there has been historical. Because several students aren’t even in the city, they’re doing school online.”
Fanshawe student Hailey Dolan has quite a trek to school, her bus route takes over an hour from home to school. She has been relying on friends and family to help her get around because she does not feel comfortable taking the bus.
“I’m also really scared of taking the bus right now, I don’t like doing that I see people with their mask kind of off their faces and I just don’t feel comfortable using the bus.”
The LTC did not have a lot of restrictions in place when the pandemic hit, it is ultimately up to the rider if they feel comfortable taking the bus. A poll of 39 Western students showed that a lot more of them are using rideshare services like Uber or walk to get around London over the bus.
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