To All Commissioners
Re: Buses off Dundas Street – Update
Recommendation
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
Municipal Council, at its September 13, 2016 meeting, resolved that the following actions be taken with respect to local public transit:
- the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to work with the London Transit Commission to move the existing bus routes on the Downtown core section of Dundas Street by September 2017; and
- the Civic Administration BE DIRECTED to explore the opportunity for including the capital costs of the additional buses as a Project Funding Request to the Phase 1 intake of the Federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund
This resolution had the effect of moving up the implementation date for the removal of buses from Dundas Street from January 2018 to September 2017.
Subsequent to the September 13, 2016 resolution, at its March 21, 2017 meeting, Council approved a plan to build protected cycling lanes along the north side of Queens Avenue; however, they directed that the Cycle Track project be put on hold until confirmation and approval on the Rapid Transit Master Plan was reached, which was not anticipated until late May/early June 2017. The March 21, 2017 resolution impacted the timing for removal of bus service on Dundas and it was determined that the removal would be postponed until April 29, 2018 to align with the spring signup changes.
A total of eleven of LTC’s current routes are impacted by the removal of buses from Dundas Street including Routes 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 19, 20, 23, 102 and 106.
London Transit worked with civic administration on developing the implementation plan and all required civic works to be completed with the understanding of routing modifications and schedule updates for April 29, 2018.
Civic administration has recently advised that construction and related closures on Dundas Street are expected to begin the week of April 3, 2018. Given this is in the middle of the current signup period, buses will essentially be operating on ‘detour’ on King and Queens for approximately four weeks, until the official change of the signup on April 29, 2018. Removing service off Dundas prior to the spring signup change results in a number of customer impacts including the following.
1. During the detour, buses will continue to operate on the current schedules which do not take into account transfer times at the split terminal. Schedules cannot be changed as it is the middle of a signup, and the advance notice provided was not adequate to adjust work that has been signed for this period.
2. Potential confusion for passengers with respect to the routing and schedule changes as service is removed from Dundas the week of April 3, 2018 but does not officially change until the end of April.
In order to mitigate the potential impacts, a public communication strategy has been established, which includes:
- Stop level notices to notify passengers of both the detour routing and changes which will be effective April 29, 2018
- Information on the electronic information signs at Dundas and Richmond
- Transit Talks and onboard posters placed on buses March 17, 2018
- Information on the London Transit website and social media
- GPSing of the temporary stop locations while on detour to allow for automatic announcements of stop locations to be available on-board the bus, noting that this will be required again for the permanent routing changes
It should also be noted that civic administration has completed all remaining civic works on King and Queens, including changes to the Parking By-law, removal of master parking meters, and installation of new bus stop poles. At time of report writing, the only outstanding work to be completed is the removal of the road markings to indicate parking spaces. It is anticipated that this work will be completed by April 29, 2018, noting all work will be done overnight and will not impact transit operations on King and Queens.
In addition to the work on Dundas Place, there are a number of other construction projects in the downtown core (York St., Talbot St.), between April and November that will impact transit operations. London Transit will be working with civic administration to ensure that communication is provided to passengers regarding the downtown detours and try to mitigate the impacts to passengers as much as possible.
Administration will continue to monitor the impacts of the detour and will provide an update report to the Commission at the April 25, 2018 meeting.
Recommended by:
Katie Burns – Director of Planning
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny – General Manager