Hopefully there will be no March Break for the Transit Advisory Committee. Unfortunately, the committee was unable to reach quorum at the February meeting out at the Watson Road Transit office, but back at City Hall it might be easier to bring everyone in to catch up on the work missed in February and take care of business for March. This is what’s on the agenda for the March TAC meeting…
NOTE #1: This meeting takes place at 5:30 pm in Committee Meeting Room A at City Hall.
NOTE #2: Since there was no quorum for February’s meeting, the agenda for that meeting has carried over. (The * denotes a new topic.)
Operator Training – Guelph Transit’s certified trainer, Supervisor David Sodaro, will go over two areas of training given to transit operators, who are little less formally known as the people who drive the bus. First, Sodaro will go over how drivers are taught to deal with passengers who don’t pay their fare or are otherwise difficult, and then we will cover how operators learn to share the road with cyclists.
TAC Members’ Rider Feedback – This is the opportunity for members of the committee to offer some first hand feedback about the current transit service and notes that they’ve received from other riders they know. There’s no formal report for this item, but there is already a topic on the agenda in the form of a question from committee member Colleen Harper who asked for information.
*Fare Strategy Update – In case you were unaware, the City of Guelph has been undergoing a review of transit fares for the better part of the last year, and the results will be coming to city council for their consideration and approval sometime this spring. There’s no formal report in this item attached to the agenda, so it’s unsure what details will be discussed at this month’s TAC.
Trip Planner – There’s no formal report for this item (yet), so there’s uncertainty about what exactly this topic will cover. Presently, “Trip Planning” for Guelph Transit is handled through Google Maps, so it Transit about to unveil its trip planning option? I guess we’ll find out. Laura Catalano-Bragues, supervisor for Scheduling and Service Planning, will present this item.
Planned implementations for Future Ready Action Plan – At last month’s Transit Advisory Committee meeting, it was noted that Transit plans for 2023 would depend on the affirmation of the 2023 budget. So now that it’s affirmed, Transit can dig into those plans for year two in the 10 year Future Ready Action Plan (and you can check out all 116 pages here).
In year two, there will more frequency on the Stone Road Mall, Imperial, General Hospital, and Victoria Road Rec Centre routes plus Westmount will now stop at the Smart Centre and there will now be a 16A and 16B routes from the current Southgate run. The Hanlon Creek Business Park will be extended to Stone Road Mall, and there will also be a temporary route called Speedvale West that will be a kind of pilot for the full 98 Speedvale coming in year three.
Catalano-Bragues will be back to present this one.
*Changes to the May 2023 Sign-Up – There’s no report attached to the agenda for this item.
*Naming Conventions for Headsigns and Routes – Catalano-Bragues will talk to committee about how Transit comes up with the names of routes. No report for this item was included in the agenda.
*Terms of Reference Update: Council Approval – Committee of the Whole approved the new Terms of Reference for the committee on Tuesday, but that will still need to be ratified at the regular council meeting at the end of the month.
General Transit Update – Management staff will be on-hand to offer updates on any pressing transit business that’s not been covered in any of the above topics and categories.
Electric Bus Update – Members of the Transit Advisory Committee will get another chance to look at one of the new electric buses with staff and get some further details about their function and roll out.
Guelph Politico 