A city committee is unanimous in entering into an agreement with NextStar Energy to provide transit services.
The Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee met Wednesday afternoon with one report looking for the city to approve entering into a licensed agreement with NextStar to allow for the bus to go right on the site.
Under this agreement, Transit Windsor would be granted access to NextStar lands in order to maintain Route 250, which will run between Tecumseh Mall and Devonshire Mall, servicing the EV battery plant and Twin Oaks industrial park.
The area previously had a bus route, however it was halted due to challenges posed with the ongoing development at Banwell Road and County Road 22.
This route - if approved by city council - would be operational by the week of August 31. It would operate Monday to Friday starting at 5:10 a.m. and would run hourly until 11:30 p.m.
Kieran McKenzie, ward 9 councillor and vice-chair of the committee, says the need is there.
"There will be thousands of people that will be working there on a regular basis, so I'm sure there will be a certain number of those workers that'll be transit users. And this report, the approval of this agreement, ensures that we'll be able to provide direct - nearly door-to-door - service to those workers. There will be a location on the footprint of the NextStar battery plant property for the bus."
He says the city hopes to expand services further in the industrial area once the new terminal opens in the east end.
"There's a number of different operators, there's a number of different types of employees that are working in that area, so we think that there are transit users that would need transit services, and are confident that once we have all the infrastructure that's intended to be built before the end of this year we'll see a pretty good ridership in the area."
McKenzie says by offering transit the hope is traffic congestion will ease up.
"I'm very excited for that route to go forward, not only to meet the demands that we have with respect to transit demand in the Twin Oaks industrial park but also to relieve traffic congestion pressure which is a pretty significant issue. And once the battery plant is fully operational, that will represent a further relief of some of that traffic volume."
A bus stop sign will be installed at NextStar, but at this time there is no plan to install a bus shelter or place a bench at this stop.
This agreement with NextStar would be on a three-year term.
NextStar has been producing electric vehicle battery modules since the fall of 2024, and plans to begin cell production later this year. There will be approximately 2,500 employees once the plant is fully operational.
-with files from AM800's Dustin Coffman