Staff Report #13
October 27, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: Draft 2026 Specialized Transit Service Plan
Recommendations
That the Commission:
i) APPROVE the Draft 2026 Specialized Transit Service Plan; and
ii) DIRECT administration to forward a copy of the service plan report to Members of Council for their information.
Background
2026 is the third year of the approved service plan improvements that saw increases of 10,000 hours in each of 2024, 2025 and 2026, and an additional 8,000 hours for 2027. The 2026 Service Plan sets out the proposed increases to service hours where there is the greatest unmet demand. Consistent with past practice, the 2026 service planning process utilizes ridership data, unmet demand trip requests and unmet subscription trip request to identify where service hour increases are most required.
The 2026 budget as approved by City Council includes the addition of 10,000 annualized hours for 2026 which are to be added to the system. Given the approval of multi-year growth hours as part of the multi-year budget, service changes on the Specialized service can be implemented effective January and be fully utilized. The following provides a summary of how the growth hours for 2026 will be allocated.
- Approximately 6,000 or 60% of the approved service hours are to be applied from Monday to Friday for the periods of January to May, and September to December to provide additional service where the greatest demand for subscription bookings is unmet. This unmet demand is primarily for work, program and medical trips which in many cases take place in the period between 8:00AM and 6:00PM. These hours will equate to an additional two vehicles on the road during these operating periods. As has been communicated in previous reports, the demand for specialized service declines in the summer months as the weather-related barriers associated with the use of accessible conventional service diminish. As such, the weekday service hours during the summer months are not being adjusted as part of the 2026 plan.
- Approximately 3,800 or 38% of the approved service hours will be applied to weekend improvements throughout the year with a focus on improving trip availability on Sundays between 8:00AM and 2:00PM for riders who choose to attend places of worship. These hours will equate to an additional three vehicles on the road during these operating periods. There will be a slightly higher application of hours to the summer months from 8:30AM and 6:00PM on both Saturday and Sunday to help to alleviate the additional unmet demand during the times in which festivals are operating. These hours will equate to an additional four vehicles on the road during these operating periods.
- Approximately 200 or 2% of the approved service hours will be applied to the service running on Statutory Holidays as demand for personal travel is in excess of available service hours currently.
Outstanding Service Requests
In addition to the proposed changes noted above, London Transit will continue to evaluate non-accommodated trip requests when considering further application of approved service hours. As set out in Staff Report #3 dated October 27, 2025, the average daily non-accommodated trips in July and August was 18, and the average daily non-accommodated trips in September increased to 65.
At the time of report writing there are 373 pending subscription trip requests that have not been accommodated due to demand during the period of the request exceeding available service. It should be noted that non-accommodated subscription trips requests result in customers continuing to call on demand to book their required trips, and ultimately these trip requests in many cases remain unaccommodated due to the high volume of requests on weekdays between 8:00AM and 6PM.
Next Steps
Service hours will be implemented for January 2026. Administration will work with the specialized vendor to ensure they are prepared with vehicles and Operators to be able to meet the expected service hour increases as noted above.
Consistent with the recommendations, this report will be shared with all Members of Council.
Recommended by:
Shawn Wilson, Director of Operations
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager