Sean Marshall

Tag: On-demand transit

  • Caledon rethinks its transit as Brampton retrenches

    Caledon rethinks its transit as Brampton retrenches

    An Argo minibus lays over at Shoppers World Brampton

    In an interesting staff report presented to Caledon Town Council, that municipality is planning to enter into a 15-month On-Demand Micro-Transit Pilot Agreement with Argo Transit, a Brampton-based provider of electric minibus services. This new on-demand transit service would replace most of the contracted Brampton Transit services in the Town of Caledon, including Routes 41, which serves Bolton, and 81, which runs along Kennedy Road north of Mayfield Road. Extensions of Route 30 Airport Road and 18 Dixie would continue under Brampton Transit, as they are limited-service extensions directly serving specific employers.

    Argo already provides on-demand service in Bradford-West Gwillimbury, replacing a fixed-route service there last year It also operates a supplemental door-to-door on-demand service in central Brampton on top of the fixed route Brampton Transit service. In Brampton, and as expected in Caledon, the same fares at Brampton’s regular service are charged, paid through a Presto card or app.

    The benefits for Caledon include new service to and within Caledon East, which is currently without transit, as well as midday, early evening, and weekend service not currently provided through Caledon’s contract with Brampton Transit. The proposed service times will be Monday to Friday from 5:30 AM to 8:00 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM. If implemented, Argo service would begin October 1, 2026.

    The map, included as an appendix to the staff report, shows connections to Brampton Transit on Mayfield Road and to York Region Transit in Kleinburg.

    Map of proposed Argo service areas in Caledon, with connecting links.

    There are some questions that should be addressed before October. Currently, Route 41 provides service to employment areas in south Bolton and provides connections to several Brampton Transit and YRT routes at Highway 50 and Queen Street, with easy transfers to the TTC subway in Vaughan and Humber College in Etobicoke. Would Brampton maintain a shortened route to Mayfield Road and Highway 50 that could make this link? Would transfers be permitted to other Brampton Transit routes along Mayfield Road, including Routes 15, 18, and 30, or would stops outside the on-demand areas be restricted to those in the map?

    For Caledon, on-demand transit looks like an attractive option to replace Brampton Transit-contracted routes with low ridership and limited service hours. For it to succeed — and even build ridership for new fixed-route service in the future — connections to other transit will be necessary.

    Despite population growth, Brampton Transit ridership is in decline

    Meanwhile, Brampton Transit, after several years of dramatic ridership growth after the end of COVID-19 restrictions, is cutting back as ridership has taken a sudden dip in 2025-2026. Four minor routes — 33 Peter Robertson, 36 Gardenbrooke, 55 Elbern Markell and 56 Kingknoll — will be discontinued. These four neighbourbood routes provide local service in areas where other routes are within walking distance or operate in the opposite direction, so the effects are minor and the cuts justifiable if it keeps service going elsewhere.

    However, Route 5 Bovaird, a major local route between Westwood Mall and Mount Pleasant GO Station, will see significant cuts: in the weekday peak from 13 minutes to 20 minutes and evenings from 30 to 40 minutes, and weekend evenings from every 30 to 50 minutes. The 505 Zum route that parallels the 5 does not operate weekend evenings, resulting in very poor service along the Bovaird corridor during those times.

    This is a disappointing setback for transit in my hometown, which up to now has been a model for promoting ridership growth in a suburban edge city. For years, I have wrote about its success in growing demand by operating good service, especially to destinations well beyond its boundaries to places like York University (later the subway terminal in Vaughan), Mississauga City Centre, Humber College, and Pearson International Airport.

    It would be very unfortunate if transit were allowed to enter a “death spiral” of ridership decline, fare hikes, and service cuts in response to this dip, largely due to a decline in international student enrollment at colleges and universities. Brampton has shown before that good service, with incremental growth is a great way of boosting ridership. This means operating buses at least every 20-30 minutes at all times on major corridors like Bovaird.

  • Can on-demand transit meet your demand?

    Can on-demand transit meet your demand?

    Durham Region Transit On Demand sedan

    Earlier in March, as part of my quest to visit every town, city, and regional government office in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area (GTHA) without a car, I took my first on-demand transit rides in a decade. This was necessary to visit Brock Township’s municipal offices, located in the village of Cannington, north of Port Perry. (I will discuss more about this project in the coming weeks.)

    Brock Township’s municipal offices, at right, sits in the heart of the village of Cannington

    Brock Township is the GTHA’s most rural and least populated municipality, home to just over 12,000. Until April 2023, GO Transit ran a daily bus service between Whitby GO Station, Port Perry, Cannington, and Beaverton (Brock’s largest community), but was cancelled after a ridership review. (GO has quietly cancelled several other bus routes that don’t cross county or regional boundaries in the last decade.) However, Durham Region Transit (DRT) offered an alternative: on demand transit.

    On-demand transit is not a new idea. In the 1970s, GO Transit operated experimental dial-a-bus services in suburban parts of Toronto, offering door-to-door service to and from the nearest subway station or a designated transfer point to frequent fixed-route bus services. In Bramalea, Chinguacousy Township operated Bramalea Dial-a-Bus, which brought residents to local employers, schools, and Bramalea City Centre. The service was replaced by fixed-route services when Brampton Transit was established shortly after amalgamation, merging the dial-a-bus operation and a privately contracted transit service in the old town of Brampton.

    Still image from “People on the GO,” a 1973 film by the Ontario Ministry of Transportation and Communications. Bramalea’s Dial-a-Bus’ pink “lazy-b” logo was adopted by the successor transit agency, Brampton Transit during its first decade.

    “Trans-Cab” services continue to be used in outlying areas of communities such as Hamilton, Peterborough, and Sudbury, where transit agencies partner with local taxi companies to allow transit riders to begin or end their journey outside of urban or regional fixed-route areas, often at a premium fare.

    My first on-demand transit experience was taking Oakville Transit’s “zone bus” service in 2005. At the time, there was no fixed-route Sunday bus service in Oakville, but there were four zones for which you could call and request a ride, with a bus picking you up at the nearest bus stop. If your destination was in a different zone, you would transfer to another bus at Oakville GO Station. Today, Oakville offers on-demand service during late evenings from the Oakville GO Station and in new and outlying subdivisions where there are no nearby scheduled services.

    My other previous on-demand transit experience was in Winter and early Spring 2012, after I suffered a broken knee cap and had to rely on Toronto’s Wheel-Trans paratransit system. Though I was fortunate to be able to get around using Wheel-Trans during a temporary disability, it was often a frustrating experience trying to book trips, especially for social or leisure purposes. I quickly came to prefer the conventional system and used it as much as I could while recovering from that injury.

    A common message while trying to book rides on DRT On-Demand

    In 2024, there are over a dozen transit agencies providing on-demand transit services in Ontario and Quebec, either as standalone operations or in conjunction with fixed-route systems. You can find them in my interactive transport maps.

    Modern on-demand services, though they are typically accessed by mobile apps these days, present some of the same challenges, including cumbersome booking processes as well as high demand and limited availability for next-day and same-day trips.

    DRT offers on-demand transit trips for customers with disabilities (who are eligible for door-to-door service anywhere in the region), rural areas, and in designated urban areas (where pickups and drop offs are made at signed bus stops).

    DRT rural services, showing the rural on-demand service area and transfer points to fixed-route services (including GO buses at Downtown Uxbridge, Brock/407 and Clarington North)

    As Brock Township was the most distant and most difficult town hall in the GTHA to reach by public transport, I tried to book for the first day of my visits: Monday, March 11. After downloading the DRT app and inputting my information (name, email address, mobile phone number) I tried to book a return trip from Port Perry (which has a scheduled route connecting it to Uxbridge, Oshawa, and Whitby) the day before.

    At one point, I was able to get an outbound trip around 12:00 PM, but I could not get a return trip after multiple attempts. After failed attempts to book each ride, the app would go back to the beginning, requiring the user to input most of the same information multiple times. I gave up and went to northern York Region instead. After midnight, early Monday morning, when one could book trips for the following day, I tried again and managed to get a return trip that met my needs for Tuesday the 12th.

    Unable to book a return trip from Cannington to Port Perry for Monday, March 11, 2024

    Once I booked my trip, the rest of the experience was smooth. I got a text reminder of my upcoming trips, and on the app, I could track my upcoming ride, much like Uber or Lyft, with the driver’s name, vehicle description, and location. Each time, I paid with my Presto card, with DRT charging the same fare for on-demand as for conventional bus service. Drivers were professional and friendly. I was the only passenger for both trips, though they are often shared, and minibuses — such as accessible paratransit vehicles — are used for passengers with disabilities or larger groups.

    Notice of pickup

    I learned that the service could be quite busy and the app sometimes problematic — there is also a toll-free number that passengers can call, and that sometimes the telephone agent would be able to find matching rides that the app would not show.

    I was lucky that my trip was discretionary, but I could see how on-demand transit can be difficult and/or frustrating to use.

    Though DRT has restored most urban bus routes (many were suspended during pandemic-related restrictions), it still struggles to meet demand on its busiest corridors, especially those serving colleges and universities in Oshawa, Whitby, and Scarborough. A fire in one of DRT’s garages last summer hasn’t helped either. As a result, some urban areas in Ajax, Pickering, Whitby, and Bowmanville still have on-demand areas where fixed-route services have yet to be restored.

    On-demand transit has its place, especially in rural and outlying suburban areas, or during times of low demand. If done right, it provides affordable mobility to people who might otherwise go without, and as an alternative to driving a car or paying an expensive taxi fare for those with travel options. Durham Region has done a good job covering the entire region with fixed-route and on-demand services, especially at night, where the urban south enjoys 24-hour transit access.

    DRT overnight services, which includes two scheduled buses and five on-demand zones in the urbanized part of the region.

    Despite Durham’s efforts, on-demand services can be costly to operate, less flexible for prospective passengers, and be frustrating to use, though they can cover much larger areas than line haul routes. Scheduled, fixed-route buses offer predictable, simple, and often faster service than point-to-point bespoke services. On-demand transit has its place, but it is only one tool in a vast toolbox of mobility solutions. This was true in the 1970s and remains true today.