While the yearly service report for Transit Windsor in 2024 showed exceptional numbers, one city councillor has some concerns.
The Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee - Transit Windsor Board met Wednesday afternoon and were presented the full 2024 numbers.
Total ridership for 2024 was 9,671,728 compared to all of 2023 which saw 9,487,528 trips - an increase of 2 per cent, or 184,200 trips.
Transit Windsor maintained an on-time performance of 78 per cent for all of 2024, consistent with all of 2023.
However, committee member and ward 9 councillor, Kieran McKenzie, wants to see that on-time performance number higher and believes that the current fleet is a concern as the city continues to wait for new buses to arrive.
Two to four buses the city ordered are ready to hit the roads, 16 of them recently arrived in the city and need to undergo inspections, licensing, etc. before hitting Windsor roads, and the city is still waiting on approximately 21 buses to arrive.
Kieran McKenzie says the on-time performance number needs to improve.
"I think some of it might be related to the challenges that we're having with respect to the fleet, the number of buses that we have. In particular we have an old fleet, that means old buses there's a higher level of maintenance that's required, and I'm concerned that we don't have the maintenance capacity in the garage as well because the garage is also old."
He says there's no doubt that the new buses will help with current timing issues Transit Windsor faces.
"We've been waiting for those buses now, they're past their due date, we have no control over when those buses can be delivered. We ordered them well over a year ago, they should be here but they're not. There's many municipalities that are facing the same issue."
McKenzie says stops that were being skipped have improved, but it's still an issue.
"More people than ever are riding the bus which means if we don't have the capacity from a bus capacity perspective, that includes how many buses we have and how many buses we're able to have in a serviceable condition on any given day, then we're going to continue to see the on-time numbers where they're at. And I think we're going to continue to see skipped stops happen from time to time, especially in the peak periods."
Nearly every single route saw high ridership, with newer routes such as the 418X and 518X seeing an increase from 2023, and brand new routes such as the 115 and the 305 - which replaced the Dominion 5 - have demonstrated strong performance.
The committee received the report for information, with the addition that a report be presented by administration with an update on garage maintenance capacity, as well as a report on the number of stops that are being skipped due to high ridership volumes.
Transit Windsor is projecting a $1.9-million overall deficit at year-end, and contributing to the deficit are the additional costs of approximately $1.4-million incurred by Transit Windsor due to federally mandated paid sick days for transit employees. These costs have been partially offset in 2024 through one-time funding from the Budget Stabilization Reserve.