OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication).
I recently wrote Mayor Don McIssac and my two councillors over the Orillia Transit debate and offer these comments for consideration.
Mayor McIssac deserves support in this debate given what some might suggest was a spendthrift nature of our previous mayor and council. Examples abound but the multimillion-dollar multi-use recreation facility (touted as a money-making sports complex that would draw business to Orillia), the purchase and teardown of the waterfront mall in order to create “better” sight lines for those coming down Coldwater Road (the resulting chaos and construction evident now suggest another long-term headache and rising expense for taxpayers), and the continuing money pit of an ill-placed pumping station on environmentally sensitive lands, at Cedar Island, stand out.
Mayor MacIssac was elected on a fiscally prudent platform and to bring some accountability to municipal spending and mitigate rising property taxes. He is clearly attempting to do just that.
Orillia Transit is clearly one area where spending could be more prudently managed.
Since moving to Orillia in 1995, I have observed full-sized, diesel-powered behemoth buses driving up our residential street, on the hour, largely empty. Anyone coming to this neighbourhood can clearly see that every house has two, three and sometimes four vehicles in the driveway. The homes with the recent exceptional rise in prices are all approaching million-dollar valuations.
When the bus route was initiated in the neighbourhood, I called and spoke at length to the manager of transportation services about this very issue, and was advised, “Transit routes are put in and ridership builds,” and I would see the “results in time.” Going on 30 years later, my observations of ridership on this route continue to be largely empty buses, driving this route on the hour, with peak use, translating into one to three people occupying seats in buses that can transport 25 or more. How can such a service continue to be provided on routes that are clearly expensive for taxpayers to fund while ridership remains paltry, and seemingly is declining? At a minimum, I urged the mayor to have a study conducted on each route, determine ridership, and assess a per-rider cost per route.
The recent letter by Dan Huffman, a former Orillia resident, was innovative thinking at its finest, an on-demand service by smaller, rider-friendly vehicles.
In my letter to the mayor, I suggested more options need to be explored, including replacing Orillia Transit with much more efficient and effective Uber transit, with city-subsidized vouchers perhaps for those on the lower end of the economic ladder; electric or hybrid vans for routes with very low ridership levels; a review of all the routes in Orillia, with a focus on maintaining and enhancing service on major routes, and eliminating routes that do not warrant transit, exemplified by empty buses and scant ridership; regular and enhanced service on major Orillia arteries, West Street from Lake Simcoe to the Orillia (Severn) mall, Coldwater Road from the new “lake views” and construction site to West Ridge and Lakehead University; exemplary service on major routes, with major hubs and businesses, such as the hospital, malls, high schools, university and recreational facilities all covered by service that is timely and, more importantly, warranted.
I urge OrilliaMatters readers to write in, call their ward councillor, and weigh in on the debate and make your voices heard.
The status quo has prevailed too long. All Orillians need to be heard and served under an accountable and effective transit system.
Frank Kreisz
Orillia
