A community advocate is pleased with the city's decision to bring back Transit Windsor’s Route 1000 through the end of 2026.
Darcie Renaud addressed city council earlier this month asking for a continuation of the school extra bus that serviced students attending Vincent Massey Secondary School and Holy Names Catholic High School.
Transit Windsor’s school extras were cut in the 2025 budget. Those buses used by about 650 students heading to Riverside, Massey, St. Joseph’s and Holy Names.
Speaking on AM800's The Kyle Horner Show, Renaud said she was happy to share the news with parents and students.
"I can tell you that many of them are so relieved because the 1000 bus serves students who were having, I guess, the worst time when it comes when it comes to getting to school, and so once that bus ended some of them were having to take up to three buses. I was hearing from parents that they were missing transfers, and just unable to get to school on time, even when they were trying to do all the right things," she said.
The move comes at a cost of about $110,000.
Following completion of the 2026 budget on Monday, mayor Drew Dilkens said reviving Route 1000 was a one-year measure, unless school boards help fund it, noting the city won’t continue subsidizing a service for students outside city limits.
Renaud said the work does not stop here.
"The next thing we'll be doing is going to the school boards, talking to them, school board trustees from both the Catholic and public board," she said.
"They are getting ready to start working on their budgets for the 2026/27 school year."
Renaud said she believed there to be an inequity between high school students in the city and the county.
"In Essex County, [a] mayor rightfully pointed out that those students do not pay for their transit. This has been a longstanding inequity between Windsor high school students versus their county counterparts, and the board absolutely in my opinion needs to address that," she said.
The 2026 budget originally proposed raising Transit Windsor fares from $3.75 to $4, but council scaled that back to $3.95. A change worth about $180,000.
-With files from AM800's Rusty Thomson