A new cross-border shuttle service is working on making improvements after some Windsor residents were stranded in Detroit following a concert over the weekend.
The Linq was offering a special events bus between Windsor and Detroit on Sunday for the Jonas Brothers concert at Little Caesars Arena. However, some concertgoers had to find their own way home after waiting for the bus post-concert, which never showed.
According to the Linq, the bus arrived at the pick-up location on Fisher Avenue and Cass Avenue at 9:50 p.m. and left the location at 10:30 p.m. with roughly 18 passengers on board. The Linq says those who got on the bus told the driver that the concert was over.
A small handful of people who were at the concert stayed until the last song, with the concert officially ending at 10:35 p.m., and had missed the bus by the time they showed up to the pick-up location.
The Linq says they wait 30 to 40 minutes after an event ends, but with concerts it's hard to know when that is. The company adds they may need to switch to set times so that transit users know when the last bus will leave.
Katherine Koutsonicolas attended the concert and missed the bus. She says she called the company to ensure there would be a bus after the show.
"So right after the concert I didn't want to chance missing the bus and went straight to that location and there was no bus, and I waited for about half-an-hour and I was told they would be up to 40 minutes after the concert... so I started getting nervous."
She says luckily she had someone to drive her back to Windsor.
"I had a friend have to come and pick me up after she put her children to bed, so she's now crossing the border twice within half-an-hour to come and get me so I'm not left here."
Koutsonicolas says she called and emailed, but wasn't able to get in contact with the company.
"Apparently they just don't have anybody working after hours... which I get... but when there's events going on and they know they're supposed to be having a bus for a special event that they advertised, I fell they should try and have somebody as a point of contact."
Dhar Bhella, CEO and Founder of the Linq, says it's hard for the drivers to know when the concert is over.
"We can monitor when a game is done... like we did the [Detroit] Lions game also, we knew when it ended and 45 minutes later is when the bus leaves. But, for a concert we're not quite sure when it's ending. Sometimes it can go longer, sometimes it goes shorter, there's no way of telling."
He says they may have to have set times for pick-up for events like concerts.
"I think when we advertise the special events, we would put down a certain time that we are going to actually leave at this time. That way people know that the bus is going to leave, we can't leave it to the last minute and say, 'okay, we're going to leave 45 minutes after the concert is done' because we don't know when the concert is actually going to be done."
Bhella says the company is working towards improvements to make the trips easier.
"We are looking to create an app where customers can track our buses so they know where they are, where they're not. That's one thing on the plate right now, we're getting that organized, hopefully in the next month or so that'll be operational."
Bhella adds that the company is always open to suggestions from the public on how to make improvements.
The service officially launched on October 6.