Staff Report #1
November 12, 2024
To All Members of the Accessible Public Transit Service Advisory Committee
Re: Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan
Recommendations
That the report be NOTED and FILED.
Background
At the October 30, 2024 meeting, the Commission approved the Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan. Consistent with past practice, the 2025 draft service planning process takes direction from the recommendations in the 2025-2029 Service Plan Framework, but also includes assessments pertaining to:
- existing service performance issues and demands
- new growth areas
- customer contacts
- Operator, Inspector and Dispatcher feedback
London Transit receives Operator feedback through the established Scheduling and Planning Committee, made up of Operations staff and administration from Planning and Operations. The purpose of the committee is to identify and review issues associated with work assignments including relief points, schedules, service levels, routing etc. Feedback from the committee is assessed and any changes that are cost neutral in nature are implemented for the next signup period. Recommendations that require service hour and/or additional vehicles are reviewed through the annual service planning process and assessed in the same manner as requests from the public.
This report sets out the Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan process and resulting recommendations.
Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan Changes
2025 is the first year of the third Five-Year service Plan Framework (2025-2029). The draft 2025 Service Plan sets out the changes that are considered the highest priority, totalling approximately 22,000 hours on an annual basis and requiring seven additional peak period buses. Given the 2025 budget, as approved by City Council as part of the multi-year budget process, includes the addition of 18,000 annualized hours and six peak period vehicles, further assessment will be completed to prioritize changes consistent with budget allocations, which will be presented in the final recommended service plan.
Table I below sets out the summary of the draft 2025 Service Plan proposals, including a brief rationale and the source of the proposed change for each.
Table I – Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan
| Route | Description of Service Change | Annual Service Hours | Peak Buses | Rationale | Service Area Impacted | Recommendation Source |
| 2 | Sunday – Increase Round Trip time from 90 minutes to 100 minutes and increase frequency from 30 minutes to 25 minutes in Base AM | 186 | 0 | Schedule Adherence | Sunday Base AM | Scheduling and Planning Committee |
| Sunday – Increase Round Trip time from 90 minutes to 100 minutes and increase frequency from 30 minutes to 25 minutes in Early Evening | 310 | 0 | Schedule Adherence | Sunday Early Evening | Scheduling and Planning Committee | |
| 4 | Weekday- Increase frequency during the early AM Period from 80 minutes to 60 minutes in the A and B branches | 504 | 0 | Increased frequency | Weekday Early AM | 2025-2029 Service Plan- Proposed for implementation in 2026 |
| Saturday – Increase Round Trip Time from 90 minutes to 100 minutes and increase frequency from 30 minutes to 25 minutes in Early Evening | 156 | 0 | Schedule Adherence | Saturday Early Evening | Scheduling and Planning Committee | |
| 10 | Routing Modification- re-route service along Wonderland Road North and Fanshawe Park Road | 5,262 | 0 | Expansion of Service | All Operating Periods | 2025-2029 Service Plan- 2025 recommendation |
| Saturday- Increase Early AM and Late Evening frequency from 35 minutes to 30 minutes | 208 | 0 | Increased Frequency | Saturday Early AM and Late Evening | 2025-2029 Service Plan- 2025 recommendation | |
| Sunday- Increase Early AM Frequency from 55 minutes to 30 minutes | 496 | 0 | Increased Frequency | Sunday Early AM | 2025-2029 Service Plan- 2025 recommendation | |
| 17 | Weekday – Increase Base period frequency from 20 minutes to 18 minutes | 504 | 0 | Crowding | Weekdays Base PM | Public Feedback |
| Weekday – Increase PM Peak frequency from 20 minutes to 18 minutes | 504 | 1 | Crowding | Weekday Peak PM | Public Feedback | |
| Weekday – Increase Early Evening frequency from 20 minutes to 18 minutes | 756 | 0 | Crowding | Weekday Early Evening | Public Feedback | |
| 28 | Weekday- Increase Round Trip Time from 40 minutes to 50 minutes and increase frequency from 40 minutes to 25 minutes during PM Peak | 1,260 | 1 | Schedule Adherence | Weekday PM Peak | Public Feedback |
| 90 | Sunday – Increase Base period frequency from 30 minutes to 20 minutes | 186 | 0 | Increased Frequency | Sunday Base AM | Scheduling and Planning Committee |
| Sunday – Increase Peak period Round Trip Time from 60 minutes to 64 minutes and frequency from 20 minutes to 16 minutes | 310 | 0 | Schedule Adherence | Sunday Peak | Scheduling and Planning Committee | |
| Sunday – Increase Early Evening Round Trip Time from 60 minutes to 75 minutes and frequency from 30 minutes to 25 minutes | 310 | 0 | Schedule Adherence | Sunday Early Evening | Scheduling and Planning Committee | |
| 127 | Introduce new Route 127 | 10,927 | 5 | Crowding | All Operating Periods | 2025-2029 Service Plan- 2025 recommendation |
| Total | 21,879 | 7 |
A more detailed discussion of each of the proposed changes is provided in Enclosure I. The discussion includes high level consideration of budget implications, and provides what is considered to be the most effective and efficient means to resolve each issue.
Community Bus
The Community Bus Service was first introduced in 1998 and is a unique service that has been specially designed to meet the needs of seniors and passengers with mobility challenges. Each weekday, the route serves a different retail location. The locations have been developed with the community and have changed over the years to meet current needs of the passengers being served. Recently there has been a request to change one of the existing retail locations to go to Highbury and Huron in order to access retail options that offer more affordable grocery choices. In keeping with the nature of how the community bus service has been developed over the years, public consultation will be held at Cherryhill Library to gather feedback from existing and potential new riders with regards to which day they would like to change to allow for the Highbury and Huron location to be added. Updates on the feedback received will be provided in the final service plan, to be presented to the Commission at the January 2025 meeting, noting these change would not require any additional hours.
Outstanding Service Requests
In addition to the proposed changes noted above, London Transit still has over 300,000 hours of outstanding service requests outside of the allocated annual budget (see Enclosure II). Every year, additional requests are received and have to be assessed and prioritized for implementation based on approved budget, proposals included in the 2025-2029 Five Year Service Plan Framework as well as previously requested changes to determine which changes should be prioritized for a given year. Set out below are two areas that have received a number of requests for additional service, however given other competing demands for service have not been prioritized as part of the 2025 Draft Service Plan.
Service to Sheffield Blvd
London Transit has received an increasing number of requests to provide transit service to the Sheffield Drive and Commissioners area. While the neighbourhood is growing, the design of the street network has not been developed to facilitate transit service into the community. Until such a time that the neighbourhood is further built out and there are additional connector streets, this neighbourhood can not be served by transit. Currently the closest transit service is provided along Hamilton Road by Route 38 with a stop at Hamilton and Oriole. Due to the previously mentioned road network however, there are no roads internal to the Sheffield neighbourhood that directly connect to Hamilton Road. There is a pathway that does connect and requests have been made to add a bus stop at this location. The area has been reviewed and due to safety concerns with the location being on a curve of a higher speed road, the inability to have passengers safely cross Hamilton as well as there not being adequate waiting space off the travel portioned of the roadway for the westbound stop location, it has been determined that this location is not suitable for a transit stop to be installed.
Extended Hours of Service to the London Airport
London Transit has been made aware of Fanshawe College extending the hours of the Norton School of Aviation operating out of the London Airport and a request has been made to extend the current hours of service to accommodate class times. Currently Routes 36 and 36A service the London Airport with a frequency of 15 minutes along the combined portions of the route (30 minutes in the branches). The service operates weekdays between 6 am and 7:30 pm and then again for two late evening trips at 10:30 pm and 11 pm. The request is to add service between 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm to provide a transportation option for students attending classes later in the evening. As with all requests of this nature, the route was assessed through the annual service planning process. In order to provide service between 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm weekdays, the annual service hours required is 1,512. Based on the current number of outstanding service hour requests as well as weighing other priorities for addressing current service concerns (frequency, crowding etc.) and the anticipated return on investment (generally not anticipated to attract significant new riders), the extension of hours on Route 36/36A was not warranted as a priority for the 2025 draft service plan. The request will continue to be reviewed on an annual basis through the service plan review process.
Additionally, a request was made from an Operator for an additional stop to be added at the Airport to better serve passengers travelling from business further north in the airport. The request was assessed through our bus stop evaluation process and it was determined that an additional stop was warranted. The request to add an additional stop was sent to the London Airport and was denied for implementation, citing that there was a greater need to increase the level and hours of service to the airport before adding additional stops. As such, the additional stop will not be added at this time.
Public Engagement
Following the presentation of the Draft 2024 Conventional Transit Service Plan to the Commission, a public engagement period is held for approximately two months to allow passengers and residents potentially impacted by the changes to provide feedback and comment on the proposals, noting that the proposed changes in the 2025 Service Plan have recently been shared through the development of the 2025-2029 Five-Year Service Plan.
The engagement period consists of in-person public information sessions traditionally targeted at neighbourhoods where new service implementation is proposed. Given that the proposed changes for 2025 are more city-wide in nature, a central location has been selected for the in-person drop-in sessions. A location at Cherryhill has also been selected for the targeted Community Bus Engagement.
| Central Public LibraryThis session will also serve as the Commission’s Annual Drop-In | Tuesday, November 12, 2024 2:00 – 4:00 pm and
6:00 – 8:00 pm |
| Cherryhill Public Library | Wednesday, November 13, 2024 2:30-4:30 pm |
In addition to the public information sessions, an online survey will be available beginning in November to collect feedback on all of the proposed service changes. Comments and feedback can also be made by emailing or phoning the customer service line or arranging for a phone meeting with a member of the Planning Department.
Next Steps
London Transit will be promoting the draft service plan, public information drop-ins and online survey through the corporate website, social media, onboard posters and stop level notices in affected areas.
Over the coming months, staff will further assess the identified priorities and refine the recommended service changes to be included in the final 2025 Service Plan.
As referenced, the final recommendations respecting the 2025 Conventional Service Plan will be presented to the Commission for approval at the January 29, 2025 meeting.
Consistent with the recommendations, this report will be shared with all Members of Council.
Enclosures
I – Draft 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan Changes
II – Conventional Transit Service – Outstanding Improvements
Recommended by:
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager