A drop in ridership in public transit.
During Wednesday's Environment, Transportation and Public Safety Standing Committee, the total ridership for Transit Windsor in 2025 was reported - which showcased an 18 per cent decline. Total ridership was at 7,951,000 trips in 2025 from 9,671,000 trips in 2024.
This drop in ridership is being attributed to a substantial decrease in the post-secondary student population following a federal cap on international students at the University of Windsor and St. Clair College, and the number of detours for buses throughout the city.
As a result of these detours, an additional 171,000 kilometres were required to be added to the route system, with the most significant detours being related to the construction on Howard Avenue and University Avenue.
Despite this overall decrease, youth and adult ridership grew throughout the year. Adult ridership increased 13 per cent, while youth ridership was up 22 per cent compared to 2024 figures. The rise in youth ridership is being connected to the elimination of the school bus extras for high school students.
While most routes experienced a decline in boardings per hour, many are now operating closer to expected capacity levels rather than consistently exceeding them - meaning there is less overcrowding and missed buses for passengers.
Kieran McKenzie, ward 9 councillor and chair of the committee, says despite this slight dip, people are still using public transit.
"Even within that cohort of international students, I know we don't have hard data, my strong suspicion and I think it's shared by leadership at Transit Windsor as well, that within the international students that are here in our community studying they're utilizing Transit Windsor to the same extent as a percentage as they were before, it's just there's less of them in the community now."
He says there's been significant increases in youth utilizing public transit following the elimination of the school bus extras.
"People are riding the bus in southeast Windsor, and they're riding the bus because those services and those service levels as a direct consequence... the tradeoff of the elimination of the school bus extra program. We now have new routes that have been implemented in southeast Windsor, and a lot of folks that live in that part of the city are young families, young people in their 20's living at home, and they're transit users."
He says in order to see increases again the city needs to continue to invest in the service and collect data on who is taking the bus.
"I think that's a really positive thing so that when we are making investments and bringing new capacities, or adjusting service levels, that we're doing it in such a way that's meeting the demand that we have in the community. I think we have a sense of it, a fairly good sense of it, but to be able to refine that decision-making process under tight budgetary circumstances."
In September 2025, Transit Windsor implemented route modifications that aligned with the Transit Master Plan's objectives to improve service. These changes included the elimination of the Dougall 6, South Windsor 7, Walkerville 8, and Parent 14 routes and the introduction of four new routes: 135, 205, 240, and 315 - designed to simplify the network
McKenzie says public consultation is expected to happen in the next couple of months in order to gain input on potential new routes as the Transit Master Plan is set to expire in 2028.