A proposed Owen Sound to Guelph bus route has hit a roadblock after no compliant tenders were received to operate it.
In May of 2018, The City of Owen Sound received word it had been approved for more than $1.4 million in grant money from the Ontario government for its Intercommunity Bus Project, with a planned route from that city to the Guelph Central Terminal more than 130 kilometres away.
An old Greyhound Bus route followed a similar path, but was closed down in the early 2000s, said Dennis Kefalas, director of Public Works and Engineering with the City of Owen Sound.
“I guess it wasn’t profitable — I know they were making lots of cuts across the country and they chose that route as one of the ones they were going to cut,” said Kefalas.
The difference maker this time around is the government funding, which would help to subsidize the operation of the bus line.
“We have about $1.4 million, so they won’t be relying just on fees,” said Kefalas.
After a request for proposals (RFP) process was initiated in July, only two companies came forward with interest in operating the line, but Kefalas said they were deemed not compliant.
“So now we are trying to contact one of the major providers of this service and try to determine why they didn’t bid and if they are interested in providing such a service,” said Kefalas.
The proposed link to Guelph was identified as a way to connect the residents of Owen Sound to to more services.
“There are still some medical services and other services that people have to have access to that aren’t available (in Owen Sound) and Guelph is a great stepping-off point to get to Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Toronto,” said Kefalas. “Certain people require a bus service if they don’t have the resources to travel in their own vehicle to Toronto or London or even to Guelph.”
The proposed bus route would begin at the bus terminal in Owen Sound and make its way to Guelph in a trip that would take about 2 hours and 15 minutes, including stops.
Some communities between Owen Sound and Guelph would have stops along the route, including Chatsworth, Williamsford, Durham, Mt Forest, Arthur and Fergus/Elora.
Kefalas said more stops were considered, but a balance had to be struck between adding service to more communities and the additional travel time required to accommodate them.
One bus would leave Owen Sound in the morning and a return trip would leave Guelph late in the afternoon. A one-way trip between the two cities would cost about $30.
There has so far been few talks between the two cities about the proposed new route, said Colleen Clack, deputy CAO with the City of Guelph.
“If the pilot does get launched at some point, then we would certainly welcome the riders to Guelph and would hope that they consider connecting to Guelph Transit once they are here to move about the city,” said Clack in an email on Thursday.
Owen Sound is currently serviced by Greyhound for a route to Toronto via Barrie.
It was hoped that the proposed bus route to Guelph could have been up and running by the Labour Day weekend, but with a lack of compliant bids, that won't be tpossible. Even with the lack of viable submissions to the first round of the RFP, Kefalas hopes to see the service up and running by Jan. 1 or April 1 at the latest.
“We are doing everything we can to get the service up and running as quickly as possible,” he said.
