A new Transit Windsor express route will have to wait until for another year following a heated debate during the City of Windsor 2022 budget deliberations.
Council passed the 2022 budget but did not approve $1-million in funding to launch the 418X east-west express that would travel along Tecumseh Road and service the University of Windsor.
Instead, Council voted 7-4 in favour of the budget motion that included implementing changes to alter the Central 3 bus route to service the new Lancer Centre at a cost of $74,653, along with a one-time Capital cost of $37,800.
Councillors Chris Holt, Rino Bortolin, Fabio Costante and Kieran McKenzie voted against the motion.
Bortolin, who represents Ward 3, argued in favour of funding the new route.
"We keep talking about now isn't the time. We've heard that so often that we're at the bottom of the province for how much we fund our transit system, the bottom," he says.
Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens was against adding the new 418X, citing the cost and the impact it could have on taxes given the current economic climate and decreased ridership during the COVID-19 pandemic.
"By adding this route, this year, you're going to be saying to the taxpayers 'you are now going to subsidize this route by 50 per cent of the cost and hope the 418X is successful.' Not a bad route but absolutely the wrong year to do it," says Dilkens.
Bortolin says we don't have white collar riders on our transit system.
"The reason we don't have white collar riders on our transit system is because it's one of the worst transit systems in the province because that's the way we fund it," he says.
Dilkens argued there's a tendency to compare our transit system to those in other municipalities.
"The reason white collar riders don't take the bus in Windsor is not because it's not a good service, and the drivers aren't nice and everything else. The reason they don't take it is because they can own a car and get, in rush hour, from one end of the city to the next in 15 minutes. So they prefer to drive because they can," he says.
Councillor Chris Holt voted against the motion, pointing out that council seems okay with investing more in roads but not looking at ways that would reduce wear and tear on the roads.
"I'm on Team 418X, proud. Not just for delivering service to the St. Denis Centre, to the Lancer Centre, but for the fact it will actually build our bus infrastructure, our transit infrastructure to the point of actually reducing the demand on all these streets we're building," says Holt.
Dilkens says people prefer to drive because they can.
"Councillor Holt, you're on Team 418X, I'm on Team Windsor. I want to make sure in regards to being the Automotive Capital of Canada that we're doing all we can to help support the automotive industry and I don't shy away from that. I think that's what people want in this city and it's evidenced by the ridership," says Dilkens.
While several councillors voiced support for the 418X route, most believed now as not the time to invest in it in casting their vote against the motion.