CORNWALL, Ontario – In a report to Council, City of Cornwall administration defended the changes they made to some bus routes in Cornwall at the end of 2018.
In late Nov. 2018, Cornwall Transit announced that it would be removing 17 bus stops along four different routes to reduce bus wait times.
“You wanted buses to be on time. Cornwall Transit listened,” reads the City of Cornwall press release sent out on Nov. 23. “Cornwall Transit is pleased to announce upgrades to conventional bus routes, effective December 10.”
Some residents were dissatisfied with these changes and the process the City went about in implementing them and submitted a petition to administration in December. At the Jan. 14 meeting of Council, the petition was accepted by Council for review.
“It is unfortunate that the people concerned with the bus changes were not consulted,” wrote Maureen Dunn, the apparent author of the petition. “People who ride the bus are already walking one or more blocks to get to the bus stop. Come Dec. 10 these people will be walking four or five blocks.”
Dunn also had a concern over safety.
“At 11th St. (sic) there is no sidewalk from McConnell to the bus stop,” she writes. “If you survive crossing McConnell with the cars and trucks turning left and the others coming off McConnell, then you have nowhere to walk but on the street. Cars the trucks and people do not make a good mix. Powers that be get out of your cars and ride the bus it might give you empathy for other people.”
In their report to Council, which Council will receive on Jan. 28, administration addressed the concerns in the petition while defending their decisions.
“Daily feedback was received from irate passengers because buses were always running late, especially in the afternoon. At times, entire 30-minute trips were missed,” the report reads. “An extra bus helped relieve some of the pressures, but further action was necessary. For more than a year, Cornwall Transit promised irate passengers that changes would be implemented to alleviate their concerns.”
Administration defended the charge that the public was not consulted.
“Passengers were asked for feedback during the Transit Master Plan consultations, on board surveys were conducted and passenger counts at all bus stops that were proposed to be eliminated were conducted,” administration explained. “It was stated at the 2018 Budget deliberations that no bus stops would be eliminated without performing passenger counts. Cornwall Transit drivers operating the McConnell route agreed that ridership in this area was very low. Our intention with the route changes is to benefit as many riders overall as we can.”
To address the concerns around crossing McConnell Ave., the City has added a new bus stop on Eleventh St. near Bousquet Ave.
In its conclusions, administration explained that it could not determine if most of the people who signed the petition lived in Cornwall or not, stating that besides the author, they were only able to find one other person on the petition who definitively lived in Cornwall.
“We conclude that the number of passengers that are affected is minimal and most persons that voiced their concerns did so on behalf of persons that might want to ride to bus,” the report concludes.
