Significant Changes to Burlington Transit Starting Sept. 1

In our continuing effort to build a better transit system for our residents, Burlington Transit will be instituting some significant changes to the transit system, including the introduction of new routes, schedules and frequencies, on Sunday, Sept 1.As the City of Burlington’s population grows over the next 20 years, these changes will help Burlington move toward a transit system that operates on a grid network, with bus service along the city’s most-travelled roads in an east-west and north-south direction. Establishing a grid network will create a transit network with more frequent and better-connected service to help meet the mobility needs of our community.Burlington Transit, the City and I would like to thank everyone who shared their input about the changes at the series of open house events that were held in April. With the feedback gathered at these sessions, several revisions were made to the draft routes and schedules, including:

• Extending the Route 4 bus further into Aldershot;
• The addition of weekend service to the 407 carpool parking lot on Routes 2 and 3; and
• Introduction of improved service and more buses on holidays.

In addition to moving towards a grid network, the changes coming on Sept. 1 will include:

• Moving bus service to the south side of the Burlington GO Station – Buses will operate along, and enter the GO Station, from Fairview Street;
• Reducing route duplication – Removing routes that cover the same road segments as other routes and routes that operate in only one direction; and
• Improving frequency of routes – Increasing frequency on routes that travel along major roads.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE CHANGESDesigned to help Burlington move toward a transit system that operates on a grid network, with bus service along the city’s most-travelled roads, the changes will:

• Move bus service to the south side of the Burlington GO Station. Starting Sept. 1, 2019, Routes 2, 6, 10, 12, 50, 51, 52, 80, 81, 87 and 101 will enter and exit the Burlington GO Station from Fairview Street. Route 1 will travel along Fairview Street and stop on Fairview Street, in front of the Burlington GO Station.
• Introduce and expand weekday, 20-minute service on Route 1, 2, 3, 10, 25, and 15-minute service on Route 11 and 101
• Reduce route duplication by removing routes that cover the same road segments as other routes and routes that operate in only one direction
• Increase the frequency on routes that travel along major roads.
• Discontinue routes with low ridership, including 15, 40, 83, 300, 301 and 302, to improve frequency on grid network routes.

A draft of the schedule changes was shared in April 2019 at a series of open house events. With the feedback gathered at these sessions, several revisions were made to the draft, such as:

• The extension of the Route 4 bus further into Aldershot
• The addition of weekend service to the 407-carpool parking lot on Routes 2 and 3
• The introduction of improved service and more buses on holidays.

For more details on the changes, including to schedules and maps, please visit burlingtontransit.ca/routechanges.MY TAKE:These changes that Burlington Transit is implementing are yet another step in our goal to not only making our local transit system better, but a viable and easy-to-use alternative to vehicles.