I moved to Milton a day before the new transit system was introduced in 2004.
For the first two years I used it sporadically to take a quick ride downtown or to the mall, as the 30-minute wait has never been something easy to plan around when you have children in tow.
For the last two-and-a-half years I have depended exclusively on public transit to commute to and from work each day.
Like most of the other regular users, I have had complaints about the wait times and connection choices to GO trains during rush hour. There are six trains leaving Milton every morning, but the buses only meet three of them, and the same thing happens in the afternoon.
But since the introduction of the new buses the service has declined drastically. The new buses break down constantly. We can never count on the buses because, just like it happened August 11 with the scheduled 7:06 bus (Route 2: Holly and Laurier stop), it may never come.
As a clarification, Route 2 got as affected by the previous weeks’ problems as any other route, contrary to what was published in the paper.
We hear everywhere that we should leave our cars in the garage and adopt public transit to help reduce the carbon emissions. This can’t be achieved in Milton solely because our public transit isn’t reliable.
For some, the problem is even worse due to the fact that they don’t have a car to drive to the station if the bus doesn’t show up.
We have been dealing with the whole ‘chicken and egg’ excuse from the people in charge. They would like to have a bigger ridership before they can implement upgrades to transit.
At the same time riders would like to have consistent, reliable and improved transit before they can jump on the bandwagon for good.
There’s a saying, “If you build it, they will come.” The Town should take that to heart and improve the transit system so we can finally be able to depend on it without fear of being stranded at the bus stop for 40 to 60 minutes waiting for the bus.
I don’t need the Town giving us free transit to apologize for not having buses when we need them. We need the buses to run on time, consistently and at a better frequency at rush-hour.
That would be the key to improving ridership.
FLAVIA TARZWELL, HOLLY AVENUE
Did the Town of Milton suffer from the “chicken and the egg” syndrome? Did they spend millions of dollars unnecessarily to get brand new buses that could fit more people BEFORE the people actually take the bus?
It looks like this writer / rider agrees. As I’ve stated in the past, I do beleive Milton needs a transit system for its increasing population. There has to be a way for someone to get downtown Milton from lets say Hawthorne Village for the Farmers Market on Saturday instead of getting in the car, trying in vain to get up Thompson Road, turn left at Main and head on down. We all know the downtown area isnt meant for lots of vehicle traffic and the bus would be the preferred way.
Only problem is that no one is taking advantage of it. Recent Milton Transit reports show that the only time ridership on the buses increases is when there are FREE TRANSIT days, sponsored usually by corporate citizens like Mattamy Homes, Fieldgate etc. and go back down to almost non existant levels when Miltonians have to pay. While we will need a transit system in town, it has to be economically viable. We cant just keep throwing money at the issue and hope someone will take the bus. We cant have a program if no one is using it. The town can throw money around and try to educate people that taking the bus is the better way.
Right now, it takes me less than 10 minutes to go downtown Milton to Troy’s Diner but if I took the bus Im looking closer to 3/4 hour or more. Ten minutes vs. forty five minutes. That can be the big deciding factor and needs to be taken into consideration and even if its free, its not that much more of an incentive for me to chose transit.
With Thompson Road STILL under construction and Derry Road east here in town about to be Halton’s newest parking lot TIME has to be the biggest consideration. Why bother sitting on a bus in slow traffic on Thompson when I can be in my car listening to Sirius Radio in more comfort.
Someone seems to like what Milton has been doing. Heres a press release on the award the Town of Milton received for its FREE FARE Transit program.
Town of Milton’s innovative transit program honoured with prestigious awardMilton, August 20, 2008 – The Town of Milton was presented with an award from the Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers of Ontario (AMCTO) for its Fare-Free Transit Pilot Program at Monday evening’s Council meeting.
The Town was a recipient of an E.A. Danby Award in the Municipal Finance Category for municipalities with a population of 20,000 or more. The award recognizes municipalities that have demonstrated outstanding achievement through innovation with respect to municipal management activities or practices implemented for the purpose of delivering improved municipal programs and services.
“On behalf of Milton Council, staff and the Milton community, we are honoured to be recognized with such a prestigious award,” said Town of Milton Mayor Gord Krantz.“I would also like to thank Milton residents who, by participating in our transit system, are helping to grow this important aspect of a healthy community. A special thank you also goes out to our sponsors who made the fare-free program possible.”
“The Town of Milton is a worthy recipient of the 2008 E.A. Danby Award,” said AMCTO President, Raymond D. Callery. “We hope that our recognition of the Fare-Free Transit initiative will inspire other municipalities to develop equally innovative models for improved service delivery.”
Sponsored by Mattamy Homes Limited Halton Division and Fieldgate Developments, the Fare-Free Transit Pilot Program provided free transit from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily between June 2007 and January 2008, as well as for special events in 2007. The program was initiated to increase transit ridership during off-peak travel hours, and targeted Milton residents who could most benefit from a fare-free service, including seniors, students and families with infants/young children.
A staff report presented to Milton Council earlier this year shows that ridership during the Fare-Free Transit program increased by 63 per cent compared to 2006 levels, and that an average of 3,800 additional rides per month can be attributed to this program.
Milton was the first community in Canada to provide system-wide free transit for an extended period of time.
| For more information : |
| Jennifer Reynolds Director, Community Services 905-878-7252, ext. 2180 |
When the fare free program is on, ridership goes up. When the program is over, the levels return to normal. Does this mean the Town of Milton will want to pass on the cost of free public transit to the taxpayers?
There needs to be a basic system in place to form the skelaton of the system and then when ridership numbers go up, we put on the meat. Problem is we have these wonderful new buses with Milton’s logo on them, acquired at a significant cost to taxpayers, running on their routes less than half empty. I see a few buses in and around Hawthorne Village and its rare I see more than 3 to 5 people riding them.
I think when town council made the decision to buy these buses they felt that people would flock to them, ditch their family mini van or suv, pack up the kids and walk to the nearest bus stop and wait….and wait.
With another future tax increase on the way, Milton council needs to know that every penny is being watched and any further expenditures to the Milton transit system without SIGNIFICANT increases to ridership will be scruitinized.
Well written article and it is a problem. Unfortunatly the travel time difference between private and public transit, along with dealing with weather conditions (who likes to stand 10 minutes in the rain waiting for a bus that might not come or went by early) and undesirable passengers really decreases a person’s desire to use this mode of transportation. I have commuted in Oakville in the past and a 4 hour round trip to Toronto for work was only endured due to the fact we had one car.
Today’s suburbs are not designed with mass transit in mind like the city of Toronto was and therefore has one hand tied behind the back right at the beginning and, it is interesting that those responsible for this planning (Mattamy, etc) are the ones offering free transit. I believe this is only to make themselves points with the local politicians so as to make their future desires that more obtainable. Not all can own a car (youths, seniors on limited pension, etc) and a mass transit system is a must. Unfortunatly, our suburban lifestyle is not conducive to this. Visit http://oakvillehomes.wordpress.com/ for more on the Mattamy Homes issue..
It sounds more like the writer of that letter is taking the position that ‘if you build it AND make it reliable, they will come’.
It seems to me that part of the problem with Milton’s transit system is that it’s pretty much useless for anyone who isn’t going to or from the GO station. Instead of using a grid system like they have in Toronto and most other major cities, where buses and streetcars go back and forth along the main roads, Milton has chosen to send its buses on ridiculously long ‘loops’ that don’t converge anywhere except the GO station. Consequently, the only people who use the system are commuters, and apparently there just aren’t enough of those.
If they ran straight bus lines back and forth along Main (possibly dipping down Bronte), Steeles, Derry, Ontario, Thompson, and Fourth Line, that would put almost everyone within walking distance of a bus stop and within no more than two bus rides of anywhere you would want to go in town.
Not only would it be more efficient and use about the same number of buses, it would also be far simpler to understand and use which would further encourage ridership. If you wanted to go northwest, you’d just catch the northbound bus and then the westbound. Easy peasy.
With the current system… well, I imagine it would help to be a Boy Scout. With an orienteering compass. And a lot of time on your hands.
Those are the comments that Im hearing from people in places around town. They WANT to use it, but the way its set up is not suitable. If they could find a way to have more routes going to downtown Milton people would take advantage of it.
As Lance states, the newer municipalities arent designed for transit, just cars. i also agree with Jennifer as if you look at the actual bus routes they loop around and around and then land at the GO Station.
Essentially thats what people are using the transit system for in Milton, and for council to spend close to $3 million on new buses when the other sized buses were just fine for the volume is short sighted.
You cant put out an inferior product and then say to consumers “well it may not be perfect but you should use it anyways.”
Good news! I finally saw my first bus driving by while I was leaving my neighborhood for work this morning that had more than 1 person riding it (2 this time).
Aside from the monumental waste of Town resources (ie. My tax-dollars), I can’t help but wonder how much CO2 is being spewed into the environment to maintain a transit system that almost no-one is riding.
This council is dysfunctional and needs fixing, and fast!
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