One Windsor city councillor wants to know the state of the local transit system as the city continues to grow.
At the last Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee, Ward 9 councillor Kieran McKenzie asked for the Transit Windsor director to bring a report back on the system's performance as it relates to meeting service level targets.
It would also cover any specific issues systemic or otherwise impacting service delivery outcomes.
McKenzie has heard from a number of transit riders in the community that there seems to be an ongoing capacity issue in terms of being able to meet the stated service levels.
"By that I mean buses arriving at the times that we tell people that they're going to arrive at. But then even beyond that because we're not meeting those timelines, there's an overcrowding issue on the buses as well. Even when a bus does have the opportunity to show up on time, because it's full, it's not able to pick people up at that particular stop," he said.
There are a number of factors that McKenzie has become increasingly aware of that are inhibiting the ability for the city to deliver the service as people expect.
McKenzie says through this report he's trying to draw out a very clear understanding for people around the council table and in administration where the system is at right now.
"There's a number of folks that have complaints that we're hearing, but they need to all be put together in one coherent report. That talks about what the challenges are, where we are with respect to the Master Plan, what the long term prospects are if we continue on this path, and whether or not we have to reconsider a number of different things."
He says those include looking at adjusting service levels or start to make the investments that are required to meet the service targets that they've stated to the community they will hit.
In particular McKenzie is looking for details about buses arriving on time, when they arrive at a stop if they're able to pick people up, the age of the fleet and the impact an aging fleet has on the ability to deploy buses on any given day.
"We don't have enough buses, the buses are too old so they break down quite a bit, and our transit garage doesn't have to capacity to fix the buses that break down with the frequency that they are. Then on top of it, the demand for transit services is as high as it has ever been in the history of our city. All of those factors are coming together to create what I consider a crisis," he stated.
Transit Windsor director Tyson Cragg told the committee that they will be able to prepare something for an upcoming meeting.
McKenzie wants to have the data all laid out so they can have a real debate on the service, which he described as terrible, due to underinvestment over the years.