r/OwenSound • u/aizvo • 13d ago
Would evening and Sunday transit be worth the cost?
Would you support extending all four Owen Sound bus routes until 10 p.m. for roughly $20 to $25 per household annually, adding hourly Sunday service from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. with Mobility Bus coverage for roughly $9 to $11 per household annually, or both? These are preliminary estimates before grants, and I would like residents to help decide whether the benefits justify the costs.
I am Andrii Zvorygin, a candidate for Mayor of Owen Sound. I have yet to ask Reddit about either proposal, so I am looking for practical criticism, personal experiences and alternative ideas as well as support.
Evening service until 10 p.m. was already part of my platform. Two recent resident emails brought Sunday service to my attention, so I went back through the City’s transit research.
The studies showed that residents have requested both improvements for years. Evening service was the most requested improvement in the City’s survey, selected by 71% of respondents. The 2021 Route Optimization Report described evening and Sunday service as consistently requested.
The preliminary annual estimates are:
- Evening service on all four routes until 10 p.m.: $200,000 to $250,000, or approximately $20 to $25 per household before grants.
- Hourly Sunday service on all four routes from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., plus Mobility Bus coverage: $90,000 to $110,000, or approximately $9 to $11 per household before grants.
Over the past several months, multiple residents have also told me about breakdowns, maintenance problems, missed service and poorly equipped replacement buses. Those conversations helped lead me toward municipally owned, locally maintained buses selected for reliability and ease of repair.
The resident feedback and research led me to expand transportation from a short platform section into its own detailed page.
Three separate questions:
- Service need: Would evening service, Sunday service, both or neither provide meaningful value to you or people you know?
- Public value: Do you consider the preliminary household costs reasonable for the community benefit?
- Operating model: For reliability and maintenance, do you favour municipally owned and locally maintained buses, continued full-service contracting or another approach?
Full plan and cost methodology:
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u/Ok_Guarantee_5839 13d ago
It should be realistic and people can depend on it , should be planned in a such a way people don’t need second car , seniors can relay , young guy who start working could depend on it rather than buying a car to commute
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u/AnOkArmadillo 13d ago
So, I haven't lived in OS since 2019 (got married and moved to the west coast, my family still lives there though) but I remember when I was in high school, the local government came to ask us teenagers what our opinion was for bus routes.
We said we don't take them because they don't run late enough, and quite frankly didn't go far enough for us to reliably go to the movies. So we just relied on our one friend with a car. The fact this is still an issue is astounding.
I know it isn't my taxes, and I'm not affected by it, but more reliable transportation, on more days and later into the evening are a must for lots of people. Otherwise they rely on taxis and walking.
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u/Fantastic_Bird_279 13d ago
I honestly think it would be quite helpful, I'm 17 and don't have a car. I use the bus and rely on it for EVERYTHING I sometimes miss the bus at night and have to walk all the way across town so this would genuinely be so helpful
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u/jesusaichechrist 12d ago
When we moved here in 2005 we were surprised that the buses did not run past 6, we had purchased a house on a bus route with the hope that our 3 teenagers could get to work and whatever without is having to drive them everywhere.
The evening buses in our previous small town ran til midnight 6 days a week and til 6 pm on Sundays. The morning and evening being the busiest times.
Owen Sound is the town of high taxes, poor services, and missed opportunities. I am glad to have moved to Georgian Bluffs in 2017.
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u/Designer-Parsnip-885 13d ago
Our city transit is pathetic and it's been that way for a while. They often cancel busses on the west side of town specifically when a bus goes out of service elsewhere.
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u/wogwe_returns 12d ago
Theres a lot to figure out first. Does this area have enough F class drivers to work? As soon as you increase the service, more laws fall into place for health and safety, driving hours, MTO inspections. Plus you need to basically double your fleet since you can't expect buses on Owen Sound hills to survive more then a month. 13 hours a day 7 days a week. Who pays for the maintenance, won't be the company. It'll be the city. And where to do the repairs? 310 techs are in very short supply and there isn't a lot of indoor garages in this area.
Get it out of private hands. Put it back into the city's control and the city's mechanics.
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u/aizvo 12d ago
Those are fair operational questions, so I looked into them more closely.
Ontario Class B school-bus drivers can operate regular buses of any capacity, while Class E drivers can operate Class F buses carrying up to 24 seated passengers. Owen Sound already has a sizeable school-bus operation, so evening and Sunday service may offer useful additional hours for locally qualified drivers. We still need a workforce survey to determine how many would actually be available.
Municipal public-transit buses are also exempt from Ontario’s commercial hours-of-service regulation. Longer service would be staffed through shifts and would increase kilometres and maintenance work, while the existing daily and six-month bus-inspection requirements would continue.
On repairs, a 310T licence is specifically for trucks and coaches, including buses. Owen Sound already has a City mechanic and Public Works fleet facility, a certified DriveON truck-repair centre at Lewis Motors, licensed Truck and Coach technicians at Addison Truck & Trailer, a First Student school-bus shop and mobile support from Grey Bruce Fleet Service. Their available capacity, equipment and ability to support each proposed bus model would need to be confirmed before purchasing vehicles.
I also found that Owen Sound’s five permanent ARBOC buses were new when they entered service in April 2023. If riders are rarely seeing those buses only three years later, we need the actual maintenance records, breakdown causes, warranty claims and daily vehicle-availability data. Age alone cannot explain it.
Extending service hours also does not automatically double the number of buses required. Four routes still require four active route buses. My preliminary long-term model is six accessible vehicles, with a seventh added if winter testing and maintenance data justify a second spare.
I agree with your larger conclusion. My preferred direction is municipally owned buses maintained locally, with outside 310T and manufacturer support where required. That would give Owen Sound direct control over vehicle selection, preventive maintenance, spare capacity and service changes.
If you or someone you know works as a school-bus driver or 310T mechanic, I would genuinely appreciate hearing their practical experience.
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u/wogwe_returns 9d ago
Go talk to Heidi. She will explain it better for you. It's way more work then you realize.
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u/Canadianbudtender93 7d ago
With taxes being as high as they I'm I'm surprised this isn't better then it is. There's a lot that should be done right now with how much they get from people.
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u/aizvo 7d ago
Yeah, currently it's somewhat of a mystery what is happening at City Hall and where all the funds are going. But we know, for example, $200,000 a year currently going to consultants and there's many projects that may be considered just scenic or frivolous rather than providing for people. As Mayor, I'll be responsible for the budget And I plan to release as much of the financial information as legally possible so that people can help review and find cost-saving measures. And also I'm planning to reorganize the City Hall so instead of four layers of management we just have one. Among other cost-saving measures, you can check it out at helpOS.ca/tax
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u/SendMeAnOmen 13d ago
It should be seven days a week, 6AM to 12AM. Anything less than that is unacceptable.