GRT decision to cut Route 2 leaves parts of Kitchener without access to transit

Community members are upset Grand River Transit is cancelling an underused bus route in Kitchener, Ont. People who live along Route 2 say it's a lifeline to get to school, work, shopping and medical appointments. 

"This is a big deal," said Meredith Blunt, who lives in the Forest Heights area and started a petition to save the bus line.

Route 2 connects people from the west part of the city near Forest Heights to east Kitchener, near Stanley Park.

"The new Visions Health Clinic in Greenbrook Plaza has at least 30,000 patients who access it. There's another family doctor in our plaza. There's the pharmacy, there's Giant Tiger for affordable groceries. There are people who use the number 2 [bus] consistently to travel for work, for family visits," Blunt said. 

Middle schoolers and high schoolers take Route 2 to school. It connects kids to specialized programs at Eastwood Collegiate, Cameron Heights Collegiate and Kitchener Collegiate Institute.

Among those students is Blunt's teenage daughter. She has autism and rides the bus to school. Changes to her routine are hard on her and the family.

"I wouldn't want my 15-year-old, or if I had a parent here, my 70-year-old parent, walking half a kilometre in February to get to a bus, to transfer to another bus — where they would just have taken one, Route 2, to get to their destination previously. I don't think that's an acceptable alternative."

The news took Chris Arnold by surprise. He owns Arnold Hearing Centres in the Forest Hill Centre plaza on Greenbrook.

"I see people coming off that bus all the time. A lot of our patients come off that bus," Arnold told CBC News. "I feel like by cutting that bus route you're going to cut off a good portion of people that come here."

Low ridership

The decision to cut Route 2 was made as part of the Region of Waterloo's budget process and there was no public consultation. 

That's the way decisions are made by the transit operator, the region's director of transit services, Doug Spooner, and regional Coun. Kari Williams told CBC News. 

"They internally decide on routes and changes, scheduling and things like that. And it's usually based on numbers and the budgetary concerns that they have," explained Williams. 

"They determine everything on their own and we vote on it for any major changes."

Compared to the rest of the Grand River Transit (GRT) network, Route 2 had low ridership. The route had one busy trip in each direction in the morning — with more than 15 people riding the bus — said Spooner, and one in the late afternoon; but the rest of the day was quiet. 

"We were seeing 8.4 boardings per hour, versus 33 across the network; so really underperforming," said Spooner. "And also the route wasn't recovering as fast as others: we were seeing 70 per cent of pre-pandemic ridership and the rest of the network is seeing 95 per cent."

The route had low ridership pre-pandemic too. GRT numbers show Route 2 had an average of 12 boardings per hour in 2019 compared to an average of 34 boardings per hour across all local bus routes.

No alternative for lower-income area

Cutting the route in September means people will have to use alternatives like Route 1, 3, 12, 16, 204, 205 or the LRT. People on Rolling Meadows Drive, Westheights Drive, Driftwood Drive, Greenbrook Drive and Stirling Avenue will have to walk more than 450 metres to reach the nearest bus stop.

A report that went to regional council shows three pairs of stops along Stirling have no transit alternative and are located in a lower-income area with yearly household incomes between $50,000 and $75,000.

The move saves Grand River Transit about $1.6 million — money that is being invested in other parts of the transit network including more service to and within Cambridge, and more frequent service on some existing routes like Route 8 and 12.

"I think it makes sense, from a monetary perspective but I feel sometimes then it's not taking into consideration the people that rely on these forms of transportation," said Williams. 

"As a region, we're trying to get away from car culture — not in its entirety — but try to reduce it so that people can find other alternative ways to get around."

Decision: Final — or is it?

Blunt doesn't believe GRT's ridership numbers are accurate, and said besides the pandemic, there has also been construction along the route, making it unpredictable. 

"Stirling, since my family moved to Kitchener, has been under constant construction. Since 2018 it has had parts of it closed, there have been detours, Route 2 has been rerouted if not cancelled," she said. 

"There's a real inconsistency on the service of Route 2 and it leaves a lot of room for error and a lot of room for inconsistent statistics."

While the GRT's decision on Route 2 is considered final, Spooner says the transit operator is holding virtual and in-person information sessions in May and June — and again later in the summer. 

"The goal of those is to get them in prior to the end of the school term and really focus on any of the travel patterns that differ from what our data shows," he said. 

"I wouldn't commit today to saying we'll adjust routes or we'll adjust stops, but we need those info sessions to help us determine if we will."

Spooner said GRT is "not in the business of cancelling routes" and the elimination of Route 2 — along with BusPlus Route 73 — are the first routes to be cancelled in at least a decade.