ELORA – It’s not feasible yet, but a township study indicates a good proportion of people in Centre Wellington would like and would use public transit if it was available.
Dennis Kar, with Dillon Consulting, presented the findings to-date of the Public Transit Feasibility Study at the Nov. 24 council meeting.
Dillon was hired to provide background information, conduct public engagement sessions and ultimately to recommend a course of action, including capital costs and how to phase in public transit.
In this initial report, Kar said there is broad support for public transit in Centre Wellington – especially a service that would take commuters direct to Guelph and GO Transit.
He noted teens and seniors would also like to see an east-west system between Fergus and Elora and some north-south routes within Fergus.
It needs to be affordable, and fares should integrate with existing local and regional services, Kar said, like Grand River Transit, Guelph Transit, and Guelph to Owen Sound Transit (GOST) that stops in Elora, Fergus and Arthur.
Wellington County’s RideWell on-demand ride share program should integrate with a Centre Wellington system as well.
Then people in the county could get to town and then to Guelph and beyond.
While not yet ready to make a recommendation, Kar said he’s working with three scenarios:
- a Fergus-Elora fixed route plus a fixed route to Guelph, with additional RideWell services in Centre Wellington. This would convert the existing summer-weekends shuttle to all-week service and would be the lowest cost to implement. It also has the lowest ridership potential;
- an east-west service between Elora, Salem and Fergus; north-south routes in Fergus; an inter-regional hub in Fergus and a fixed route service to Guelph. This would see higher ridership but higher potential cost; and
- scenario two plus additional on-demand service during lower-use periods. This would be more cost effective for different times of day but would be more complex to deliver.
Kar said Dillon will examine the social, technical, environmental and financial aspects of each concept and identify the preferred model. They will then develop financial and implementation plans.
There will also be more community engagement as the options are narrowed, he said.
Councillors seemed excited at the prospect and pleased that youth were specifically consulted, as youth might use a local service more than anyone.
They also hoped there would be government grants to help get the system off the ground.
Kar said he expects to return to council in the spring with some costing and a preferred alternative.
Council accepted his report for information.
