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Local transit changes aim to solve regional issues

Expanded bus schedule and employee shuttle part of plan to make the region more traversable.
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CollingwoodToday file photo

Collingwood is moving forward with an expanded transit schedule for Colltrans and The Blue Mountain and Wasaga Beach links.

Collingwood approved up to $35,000 from the town coffers for the expansion project, which already has support from The Blue Mountains, according to Martin Rydlo, Collingwood’s director of marketing and business development.

The expansion to Colltrans means more service on Saturday and Sunday. Currently town buses don’t run past 6 p.m. on Saturdays and run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sundays.

The new schedule would provide service from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Weekdays will remain from 6:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Wasaga Beach Link will get an extra hour of service on Saturdays and weekdays from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. and six more hours of service on Sundays so it runs from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

The Blue Mountains Link service is doubling to run from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Previously the service included a gap in the afternoon from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and the last bus ran at 7 p.m.

The expanded hours will be a six-month pilot project and will be reassessed once the six months has ended. The pilot runs from July 1 to Dec. 31, 2018. 

An increase in the transit service schedule was one step in improving regional-based transit needs as identified by a transit working group that includes stakeholders from The Blue Mountains, Collingwood, and Wasaga Beach. The group also proposed a private sector ride sharing employee shuttle that would operate solely for employment business. This would require the private operator to have a permits from all service areas to allow for the company to cross borders.

Summerbound – a division of ACE transportation group – is applying for the contract, and has already gotten approval from Collingwood council for a cross-border licence. Summerbound will have to get permission from Clearview, Wasaga Beach and The Blue Mountains as well.

According to the letter sent by Summerbound to Collingwood council, the company hopes to have the shuttle operating in the next six to eight weeks.


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Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
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