After putting Cambridge expansion plans on hold for two years to ride out the pandemic ridership slump, Grand River Transit is redesigning the city's transit network this year.
The changes are being made as the city prepares to welcome ION light rail transit sometime within the next decade.
To gear up for the redesign, GRT is planning a virtual public consultation centre in March and will hold in-person sessions if public health guidelines allow.
A report coming to next week’s committee of the whole meeting says the goal of the enhanced transit system is to increase ridership in Cambridge and ensure it is accessible and appealing to the public.
"Routes serving east Galt, north Galt and Preston areas are being redesigned to be more direct, to support current travel patterns and to increase long-term ridership in advance of Stage 2 ION LRT."
The redesigned routes would better connect neighbourhoods to major destinations such as shopping centres, schools and employment areas, says the report.
More routes will be added to connect directly to the Ainslie Street Terminal and Cambridge Centre Station, where connections to frequent routes such as 302 ION Bus are available.
The plan also included improved hours of operation and increased frequency of service during weekday evenings and weekends.
New growth areas in southeast Galt will be added to the network.
Feedback gathered from PCCs and online comment forms will be considered in finalizing the network redesign and associated service levels in advance of implementation in September.
Regional Council originally approved the second phase of Cambridge service expansion as part of the 2020 Regional Operating Budget but, in consideration of the pandemic, council voted in April 2020 not to proceed.
Staff proposed the updated plan along with a plan to restore college/universities service as a package for the 2022 Regional Operating Budget.
Regional Council approved the operating budget in December 2021.
Staff says it will also consult City of Cambridge staff regarding the objectives and implementation of the service plan.
Dates and locations of the planned PCCs are Tuesday, March 1, at the Ainslie Terminal from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., Wednesday, March 2 at the Cambridge Centre Station from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and a virtual session on Thursday, March 3 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
The region says information packages with detailed descriptions of the proposed route changes and service improvements, including comment forms, will be distributed at the PCCs.
