CENTRE WELLINGTON ‒ As development booms across Wellington County, some residents are asking for a busing system to combat future growing pains- starting with a connection between Fergus, Elora, and Guelph.
An Elora resident for almost two decades, Kaela Anderson wants to bring back the Elora/Fergus/Guelph commuter bus, a twice-daily service run by Elliot Coach Lines, to help address community concerns with road rage, traffic, and access to parking.
Advocating for sustainable, accessible transit, Anderson believes that a bus connecting Centre Wellington to Guelph could turn some frustrated drivers into passive passengers while providing an affordable transportation option for seniors, youth, people with disabilities, and low-income residents.
“I don't think people realize the percentage of the population who can't, don't want to, or can't afford to drive,” said Anderson. “Even if you don't take public transportation, removing 50 cars a day commuting to Guelph would benefit everyone.”
While the bus company is on board with the idea, Anderson must recruit at least 30 regular users to get the bus back on the road.
But Anderson feels that services like G.O.S.T, an inter-community bus from Owen Sound to Guelph with stops in Mount Forest and Arthur, and the Centre Wellington Downtown Shuttle, which has stops across Elora and Fergus, show that beyond time and word of mouth, investing in signage is the next best way to encourage service use.
“(In the past,) there were definitely times where I was like ‘I sure would like to take that bus, but does the stop even exist? What are the times?’,” said Anderson. “(The last Fergus/Elora/Guelph bus) was really sort of unknown unless you knew someone that had already taken it.”
While the previous Fergus/Elora/Guelph bus closed from low ridership during the pandemic, G.O.S.T saw its monthly ridership increase from 150 to 640 from 2020 to 2022.
“A chicken-and-egg issue,” County councillor Mary Lloyd also believes that more people would use existing services like the CW shuttle if they knew they weren't exclusive to tourists.
“There are so many things that you could do if you just got on the bus,” said Lloyd. “But we suffer with a car mentality in Centre Wellington and in a lot of Wellington County because we don't have public transit.”
On a recent trip using the CW shuttle, Lloyd spoke with a senior who uses the service to run errands every weekend.
“She said she (doesn’t) have a car or drive anymore and this is the best way for (her) to travel back and forth,” said Lloyd. “Sometimes (she) can get everything done in an hour and sometimes it takes (her) two but she really enjoys the availability of it.”
Considering the shuttle program already exists and could be adapted, Lloyd believes Centre Wellington is ideal for a public transit pilot.
When asked about the feasibility of public transit, Centre Wellington said that staff cannot comment on future plans for transit as a transit feasibility study has not been completed and that there is currently no funding available in the capital budget.
“If their goals are to intensify the population in downtown cores for instance, then they have to figure something out,” said Lloyd. “To say we don't need a parking space for your car to get back and forth from work is kind of a dream.”
In 2022, Statistics Canada found that every two in three people living in Wellington County travel outside of their municipality to work.
“I don't think the people who are making decisions realize how inaccessible some essential services are without a car,” said Anderson. “Before Geddes Street Market came to town, Elora was somewhat of a food desert (if you couldn’t drive).”
In April, county ride-sharing service, Ride Well’s top locations included trips to Walmart Supercentre in Fergus, Guelph Central Station, Tim Hortons, Groves Memorial Community Hospital, and Stone Road Mall.
Offered eight hours a day, in May, the program had approximately 40 per cent failed searches due to high demand with the number peaking between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. and then again at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m.
But Lloyd and Anderson believe that Ride Well is only the first step.
“An hour wait is a long time when you're standing out in front of a grocery store waiting for your ride to come and that's what happens,” said Lloyd. “Or if you want to go to the hospital for an x-ray or get blood work at LifeLabs, those kinds of places aren't necessarily the easiest to walk to.”
Centre Wellington previously investigated busing options in its 2019 Transportation Master Plan.
Similar in population to Wellington County, Stratford implemented a transit system with six bus routes in 2018 for $1.57 million.
Halton Hills, which has a population closer to Fergus or Elora, invested in a specialized transportation service intended for seniors and people with disabilities in 2018 for $403,000.
“I think that if you're building hundreds of homes in a subdivision if you don't live near them, those homes are sort of out of sight and out of mind,” said Anderson. “But it's more so that hundreds of additional cars on the road and your commute to work or fighting for parking that can sort of take away the beauty and the quaintness of small towns.”
In the meantime, residents like Anderson plan to show the council how necessary these services are for the future of their community.
“I really do hope that as we move forward and think of infrastructure and accessibility, public transportation becomes embedded in our plans," said Anderson. “I believe it really will benefit everyone.”
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
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