Inter-community transit continues to expand in SW Ontario
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Southwestern Ontario’s Inter-Community Transit system, which including T:GO and Ride Norfolk, continues to expand its routes and gain new riders.
Funded for the next four years, they have time to continue to build and make it even more accessible for rural communities across Southwestern Ontario.
“I think the long-term plan is to link to going where you want to go,” said Dave Beres, Tillsonburg Deputy Mayor.
“We’re not ready yet – if you’re in London and you want to go to Turkey Point, you can get there, but you might not return the same day.”
It would also be a long trip from Tillsonburg to Goderich, Sherry Hamilton agreed.
“It was the province that really initiated ‘let’s connect our little communities,’” said Hamilton. “Let’s make it viable for those people who don’t drive or can’t drive to access other communities. So I think that was primarily the conception of this idea. They are in the developing stages now, everyone is trying to coordinate and mesh their systems together so that our bus gets to where it needs to be to connect with another one. I think this is just the beginning.”
You can currently go from Tillsonburg to Port Burwell, have time to enjoy the beach and village, and get home in the same day. It’s just a matter of timing the bus trips.
“I really believe that once we fine-tune this, it’s going to be beneficial to everybody across southern and into northern parts of Ontario,” said Hamilton. “We lost Greyhound…”
“That’s the big one,” said Tillsonburg Coun. Pete Luciani. “We’ve lost Greyhound and now we’ve got something that will help fill that gap.”
“There are 15 communities within the SCT (Southwest Community Transportation) Network,” said Kimberly Earls, Executive Director of SCOR Economic Development Corporation. “So it’s a coordinated network – co-ordinated by SCOR Economic Development Corporation. It started with the five SCOR county partners (including Tillsonburg in Oxford County) and it’s taken a lot of time and effort on individual councils… to coordinate and align the routing to make sure that we have the same policies.”
If you get on a bus in Dorchester, and have accessibility needs, those same needs will be met in Tillsonburg, she noted.
“It helps us to support our economic development and that was really one of the driving factors – access for healthcare, education and jobs for our smaller rural communities.”
More information on Southwest Community Transit and routes is available on their website at ride-sct.ca. It includes links to Brant, Grey, Norfolk, Perth and Middlesex Counties, Tillsonburg, Sarnia/Strathroy and Huron Shores transit systems.
“All the different systems that are part of the Inter-Community Transit Network,” said Earls. “Of the 15 transit partners, probably eight of them are funded through the provincial community transit pilot program. But there are (programs) like Tillsonburg (T:GO), like Ride Norfolk, and Brant County, that the municipalities themselves have invested in and supported, so that their residents – and people trying to get into their communities – have those opportunities.
“We’re in the early stages, but we’re getting there,” said Earls.
“We are luckily to be funded until 2025,” said Luciani. “So we’ve at least got time to get settled in, get things moving, get accepted, get a profile outside so that we actually get the user base up.
“One thing that has been consistently coming up every year, every election, is transportation,” said Luciani.
“The advantage we have,” said Beres, “is that Mayor (Stephen) Molnar has been selected on Transport Minister (Caroline) Mulroney’s task force to work on it.”
“Good point,” Luciani nodded.
“We need to get word out that this is available,” said Hamilton. “People can get to Victoria Hospital in London. People can get to the Woodstock hospital.”
“And the vaccination clinic in Woodstock (in March/April) when it first started before we opened ours,” said Beres. “They were there and back in the same day – and the (T:GO bus) made the special stop at the vaccination clinic at Goff Hall.”
“And now with this mega bus running out of London to Toronto, it would be nice if everybody’s transit could keep that in the back of their minds,” said Hamilton. “Now people can get to Toronto right from London with no Greyhound bus. It’s just a matter of connecting your transits to get to the stop there for that mega.”
cabbott@postmedia.com
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