After a few tough years during the pandemic, it’s great to see the City’s transit system expanding once again. In 2024, we are expecting transit ridership to return to the pre-pandemic peak of nearly seven million riders we first reached back in 2019. With the City’s population continuing to increase, we’re now ready to create more opportunities for people to move around the community conveniently and at lower cost. That’s why this year we are rolling out a number of important improvements and new transit options. These include a new bus route to Westbrook, and new early morning buses to the Via Rail station to connect with new early morning train departures to Toronto. There will also be a new pilot project this fall for a downtown circulator bus route, which will run in a loop from Providence Care Hospital, up to the Kingston Centre, over to the Inner Harbour and through the downtown.
Perhaps the most significant addition is a new pilot that will introduce a new on-demand transit system for the rural area of the City. I’ve heard from many residents in the rural area of Kingston about the need for transit, but with fewer residents spread out over much larger distances, a traditional transit system doesn’t work. However, other cities in Ontario such as Barrie and Guelph, have successfully introduced on-demand transit systems for their less-populated areas. This system would work in a similar fashion to Kingston Access Bus, where residents request a ride ahead of time by phone or through an app. This transit service will then connect them to the City’s regular transit system in the urban area. Transit staff will be reporting back to Council with more details in the coming months on how this on-demand transit system could work, and it’s exciting to see that as the City grows, our transit system is growing and improving as well. These improvements are a key part of building a more active and connected city.