Transit Windsor is working toward increasing capacity limits on city buses that have been in place due to COVID-19.
Tyson Cragg, Executive Director of Transit Windsor, told Monday's Windsor City Council meeting that they have had communication with the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit about increasing capacity.
"We are doing in consultation with our health and safety committee and as well, looking to ensure we have all the measures in place. We are currently under a masking mandate from the federal labour ministry," he says. "We're trying to do all of that in concert with one another."
According to a report to Council, Transit Windsor has been operating with a bus capacity limit of no more than 40 passengers, which is 65 per cent of the design capacity for a 40-foot transit bus.
Cragg says they're looking at April 10 right now which coincides with operator sign up, when operators select their work, which is the same day they also plan to put some extra buses on identified corridors as ridership increases.
"We just want to make sure we're cautious about this given that we're one of the few transit agencies that had capacity restrictions in place, bear in mind we were down to as few as 10 people on a bus at one point," he adds.
The report to Council noted that Windsor remains one of the only large transit systems in Ontario with COVID-19 capacity restrictions.