Lakehead University students tired of long bus waits, cancellations call for Thunder Bay transit changes
City Transit blames bus service issues on staffing shortages
Students at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., are calling for changes to make the city's bus service more reliable.
More than 500 people have signed an online petition, created by international PhD student Mohit Dudeja, calling for Thunder Bay City Transit to make improvements following an onslaught of complaints about bus delays and cancellations, especially during the winter.
The petition calls for:
- More frequent buses, particularly during peak times and extreme weather conditions.
- Shelters at each bus stop in the city.
- Improved communications around bus schedules, delays and cancellations.
Full-time Lakehead students pay more than $225 for a Universal Bus Pass through their ancillary fees.
"I paid for a whole year bus pass and I would expect it to be a good service," said Miguel Aguilar, an international student from Mexico who's completing his master's in chemical engineering.
Aguilar has been late to work due to sudden bus cancellations and has had to pay for a cab or Uride, which can be costly, he said.
"It's usually a gamble if I'm getting to wherever I want on time."
Members of the Lakehead University Student Union (LUSU) are set to meet with City Transit management this week to discuss students' complaints as the bus operator is coping with staffing shortages and escalating safety concerns.
Longer wait times in the cold
Students like Victor Clayton say bus delays often have a chain reaction. What would be a 10-minute drive home takes 45 minutes to an hour on the bus, and if one bus is cancelled, Clayton must take a roundabout way that involves three other buses.
Oftentimes, students end up stranded halfway to their destination and left waiting upwards of an hour for the next bus, said Thomas Bentz, who also studies at Lakehead. He said it would be helpful if bus drivers communicated with each other about passengers who need to make a transfer.
"If one bus is pulling up and they're a little bit late, maybe ask the connecting bus to wait a few seconds," Bentz said.
"I feel lucky because I'm able-bodied — I can just walk to where I need to go, even if it takes a long time. There are a lot of people who can't do that."
There are also safety concerns around long waits in cold temperatures, particularly for international students who are adjusting to Canadian winters.
"There have been reports where students mention that they fall sick because they had to wait for a bus for a long time in the winter — there was no shelter," Dudeja said.
Addressing staffing shortages
The city has a fleet of 48 buses that cover 16 routes. Ridership has gone from nearly 4.2 million annual trips before the COVID-19 pandemic to about three million. As the service looks to recuperate those numbers, staffing shortages have created big challenges, said Brad Loroff, manager of transit services.
The service is at 38 per cent of its part-time complement, with 17 vacancies, he said.
"It really impairs our ability to maintain those more frequent service levels," Loroff said. "What we're doing and experiencing is adjusting our service to longer wait times, in the neighbourhood of 30-minute service levels."
It can take drivers two to three years to move to a full-time or guaranteed-hours position in Thunder Bay, though operators across Ontario with similar services are also having problems hiring drivers, he said.
Though it's hard to pinpoint the causes of the shortage, Loroff says recruitment efforts have ramped up and they hope to fill most, if not all, of the vacancies by the end of the year.
"I don't think it's so much an issue of buses needing to communicate amongst each other to hold for transfers and things like that," Loroff said. "I think it really falls back down to we need more buses back on the road, and we only can do that with more drivers."
The city has about 800 bus stops, 118 of which have shelters. Though it isn't possible to install shelters at each stop, the service has secured funding to make improvements over the next five to six years, and they'll include adding 20 new shelters and replacing 30 existing ones, said Matt Furioso, operations manager of transit services.
Before the pandemic, City Transit held drop-in sessions for students and stakeholders to talk about service plans. Loroff said he hopes to bring those sessions back to better understand rider experiences and expectations.
Benefits of accessible, attractive transit
As a Lakehead University professor and community advocate, Paul Berger hears a lot of feedback on public transit.
Not having reliable access to transportation affects all aspects of a person's life, he said, and gave the example of what would happen if someone was told once a week that their car wasn't going to start that day.
"It would be absolutely catastrophic because I'd either have to go half an hour early every morning just in case, or else just have to be late to things all the time, and that's not comfortable and it's not even safe sometimes," said Berger, a member of the Fare-Free Transit working group with Poverty-Free Thunder Bay.
Thunder Bay is rolling out a three-year Affordable Access to Recreation and Transit pilot program, which began last year, and provides low-income people with access to City Transit and recreation opportunities. While Berger celebrates the program, he said city council must pay more attention to bus riders' concerns if they want more people to use the service.
"Drivers of cars tend to complain loudly when the streets aren't cleared of snow or when there's potholes and things like that," Berger said. "People taking the bus maybe don't complain as loudly often, and so city councillors don't hear the need as acute as it is.
"But we know that it impacts people's health, it impacts our mental health, it impacts their ability to have jobs and their ability to get to class on time — including to my class."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
