Niagara Transit shares long-term plans with Fort Erie residents

At some point this year, Niagara Transit is going to surpass a major milestone of 100,000 rides in Fort Erie.

And while leadership at the organization were already well aware of the need to grow public transit locally, that achievement will serve as another reminder.

“The intention is to build something that is convenient and that continues to move forward,” said Carla Stout, general manager of Niagara Transit.

“Create a network that delivers on the least amount of time on the bus and the least amount of transfers.”

Stout and members of the Niagara Transit team were on hand at the Centennial branch of the Fort Erie Public Library on Thursday evening to share with visitors their plan to grow public transit both in town and across the region.

The plan includes three major stages, though Stout has already said some aspects may be moved up. Locally, they’ll be seeking regional approval later this year to implement a fixed route community bus in Fort Erie.

“That bus is being asked for in this next budget cycle, so we’re hopeful that we’re going to be able to introduce a Fort Erie bus sooner than anticipated in the plan because we know that it’s needed here,” Stout said.

The 10-year plan covers the entire region and describes stage one goals as harmonizing and optimizing services. That includes having service run from 6 a.m. to midnight, introducing Sunday service and beginning network optimization. It will also see the launch of express bus routes.

Stage two, planned for 2028-2030, will see expansion of hours to 5:30 a.m. to 1 a.m., as well as rapid bus implementation, the establishment of a high frequency network, and full fixed-route coverage.

The final stage mostly sees the full implementation and expansion of what’s planned in earlier stages, including some overnight service, a complete rapid bus network with five routes, 25 per cent expansion of microtransit, and robust high frequency networks in major urban centres.

In addition to the community bus plans locally along with the overall region wide goals, Fort Erie will also see the expansion of microtransit hubs to Douglastown-Black Creek in stage one.

Stage two will see microtransit hubs in Crystal Beach and Fort Erie, and new and expanded regional routes servicing Crystal Beach, Port Colborne, Welland, St. Catharines and downtown Niagara Falls.

In the final stage of the plan, the town would see additional fixed routes in Fort Erie and Crystal Beach and an increase in the Fort Erie-Niagara Falls route frequency.

Stout acknowledged the growing pains they’ve faced since amalgamating transit regionally.

“We’ve had so much growth on this system and it’s been hard for people to get trips, we have had capacity issues because it has grown so quickly and yet we have the same amount of service,” she said.

“We just want to let people know that we hear you, we’re working on it and it’s definitely in the plan to go forward in the budget.”

Niagara Transit’s outreach efforts will continue with stops in other communities in the coming weeks. Stout said Fort Erie residents should also expect to see more of them when the community bus is approved.

“When we introduce the community bus we’re going to be back out in front of the public talking about bus stop locations and what the routes look like so there’s community input into that process,” she said.

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