Staff Report #2
January 29, 2025
To All Commissioners
Re: 2025 Service Plan – Conventional Transit
Recommendation
That the Commission APPROVE the 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan as set out below noting the recommended changes represent approximately 18,000 additional service hours:
- Route 10 – Re-route service along Wonderland Road north and Fanshawe Park Road
- Route 28
- Weekday- Increase PM Peak round trip time from 40 minutes to 50 minutes
- Weekday- Increase PM Peak frequency from 40 minutes to 25 minutes
- Route 90
- Sunday – Increase Base Period frequency from 30 minutes to 20 minutes
- Sunday – Increase Peak Period round trip time from 60 minutes to 64 minutes and frequency from 20 minutes to 16 minutes
- Sunday – Increase Early Evening round trip time from 60 minutes to 75 minutes and frequency from 30 minutes to 25 minutes
- Route 127 – Introduce a new route operating between Western University and Capulet lane via Western, Sarnia, Wonderland and Beaverbrook
Background
At the June 26, 2024 meeting, the Commission approved the second Five-Year Service Plan Framework document for service changes over the period of 2025-2029. The 2025-2029 Framework focuses on a set of priorities in which the annual service plans will focus on over the five year period.
- Improve the Experience of Existing Transit Users: These changes invest in the service already on the street to make sure the Conventional Transit Service is running on time, and that buses are not too crowded. This means adding capacity where there are already challenges in the network. This also means prioritizing service hours for the Specialized Transit by making more resources available during the busiest times of the day and week.
- Prepare the Conventional Network for Rapid Transit: By the end of this plan horizon (2029), Rapid Transit will be in operation, providing an enhanced quality of service for Londoners. Some routing changes outlined in this plan intend to feed into the Rapid Transit network.
- Expanding the Network: The City of London is growing rapidly, and the need for transit service continues to increase. Several changes to the network are proposed which would see new service into areas which are currently unserved by London Transit.
2025 represents the first year of the current five-year service plan. The draft plan proposals as well as the final recommendations, took direction from the approved five-year service plan, while also taking into consideration current operational issues considered the highest priority for improvements in 2025. Table I sets out the recommended service changes for 2025.
Table I –2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan
| Route | Description of Service Change | Annual Service Hours | Peak Buses | Rationale | Service Area Impacted | Recommendation Source |
| 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 |
| 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 between 9am and noon | 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 between noon and 5pm | 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 between 5pm and 10pm | 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 | 18,255 | 6 |
The 2025 draft plan, as presented to the Commission at its October 30, 2024 meeting, prioritized 21,879 annual service hours for consideration; however, the final approved operating budget only provides for the addition of 18,000 hours in 2025. As such, further refinement of the draft plan was required which resulted in some draft recommendations being deferred for review as part of future service plan assessments. Table II below sets out the draft proposals that are recommended for deferral and consideration in future service plan assessments.
Table II- Recommended Deferrals from the Draft 2025 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 | 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 | |
| Total | 3,624 | 1 |
While the improvements identified in the table above are all warranted, the recommended service changes are considered the highest priority for implementation in 2025. Proposed changes included in Table II will be re-assessed through future annual service plan reviews.
Public Consultation
To gather public feedback on the draft service improvements, information was posted on the London Transit website as well as on board all buses. Customers were encouraged to complete the online service plan survey or call/email a customer service representative with any questions or feedback on the proposed changes. Information regarding public engagement for the draft service plan was also posted on the corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts. Additionally, anyone wishing to discuss the proposed changes in more detail were invited to schedule a phone meeting with a member of the Planning Department.
In addition, an in-person public participation meeting was held at the London Public Library- Central Branch, to gather feedback on all the proposed changes. A second in-person session was held at the Cherryhill Branch of the London Public Library, specifically for feedback on the proposed changes for the Community Bus.
Feedback regarding the routing change to Route 10 and the introduction of Route 127 was overall positive. Of the respondents that stated an opinion, 66% (394) of responses were in favor of changing Route 10, while 34% (204) of responses were not in favour. Similarly, 86% (499) of respondents agreed with introducing Route 127, while 14% (80) of respondents disagreed.
Both of those sentiments matched the conversations had a public meetings. Riders generally agreed with Route 10 becoming a Wonderland corridor route, and were happy to see a new, more frequent service on Sarnia in the Route 127. Although a minority of online survey respondents cited the loss of a direct connection between Westmount and Western, Sarnia east of Wonderland has some of the highest combined frequency in the network. Passengers headed to Western could connect to a 9, 27, 31 or 127 at the Sarnia and Wonderland intersection. At current service levels, that represents about 15 buses an hour, or an average combined headway of 4 minutes in the AM Peak, and 17 buses an hour, or an average combined headway of 3.5 minutes in the PM Peak. While this change does introduce a transfer on trips described above, the expected transfer time of half the combined headway on Sarnia is minimal and outweighed by the support for more frequent service of Route 127 as well as the continuous service on Wonderland. Further support for the change to Route 10 was bolstered by an expectation that Wonderland and Fanshawe Park Rd will allow for more consistent runtimes and isolate delays caused by congestion or events near the University to the shorter Route 127. With this configuration, passengers riding Route 10 along Southdale or Highbury would be less impacted by delays for congestion at Sarnia and Western.
Route 28 also saw significant support for the proposed changes despite not having the same level of ridership as other routes with proposed service changes. While fewer riders interact with Route 28 on a daily bases, the comparable rate of responses prioritizing the route 28 suggested that passengers that do use the service, saw the change as critical. This aligned with schedule reviews that showed Route 28 to consistently fall a full headway behind schedule during the PM Peak period. The addition of another bus on the route will allow the round trip time to be extended so that schedules can be attained, while also providing a more frequent service to passengers traveling to and from Lambeth and the industrial areas on Exeter.
Among the proposed service improvements remaining, the frequency improvements to Route 90 on Sundays received the most support for an improvement that still fit within the approved annual service hour allocation.
Cherryhill Community Bus
The Community Bus service is specially designed to serve the needs of seniors and persons with mobility challenges. Service is provided, where possible, to the doors of specified seniors residences, medical facilities and shopping centres. The Cherryhill Community Bus service has been operating for many years and has continued to grow in popularity resulting in the need to add an additional bus five days a week and a third bus on Wednesdays for the growing ridership demand.
As part of the 2025 Draft Service Plan, requests had been made by some Community Bus passengers to modify one of the days of service to provide service to the Giant Tiger and Huron and Highbury. As decisions regarding the retail locations served by this service are made through a consensus of the residents in the area, a public participation meeting was held at the Cherryhill Branch of the London Public Library. At the information session, there was a survey provided to attendees to gauge overall support of the changes as well as which day (if any) they would like to see modified to be able to extend the service to Huron and Highbury.
The results of the survey showed no consensus on the proposed change. While many were in support of having Giant Tiger as a retail option there was a lot of concern over the possibility of losing one of the existing retail locations.
Further assessment was completed to determine if an extension of service to the Giant Tiger near Masonville Mall could be accommodated within the existing Friday schedule. Through the assessment it was determined that there would be adequate time to add another drop off/pick up location at the Giant Tiger Plaza.
Further discussion will be held with the plaza owner to determine if they would be amenable to allowing us to operate the Community bus on their property on Fridays. Should permission be obtained, the additional drop off/pick up location in the Giant Tiger Plaza in the Masonville area will be added to the Route 55 Friday Community Bus route.
The recommended change will be cost neutral in nature and will not have any impact on existing Community Bus Routing.
Next Steps
Subject to Commission approval of the 2025 Conventional Transit Service Plan, the next steps associated with the implementation of the service changes include:
- preparation/production of new schedules, layovers/time points, public timetables and Operator sign-up;
- updating the AVL system;
- updating schedule information for Google Maps; and
- undertaking a communication program including printed Ride Guide maps, on-board and stop level notices, website updates and social media, as well as internal information screen postings and Operator information sessions at signup.
Enclosure
I- 2025 Recommended Conventional Transit Service Plan Changes
Recommended by:
Katie Burns, Director of Planning
Concurred in by:
Kelly S. Paleczny, General Manager