Renée Amilcar, General Manager, Transit Services Department, Troy Charter, Director, Transit Service Delivery and Rail Operations, Pat Scrimgeour, Director, Transit Customer Systems and Planning, James Greer, Director, Transit Bus Operations and Maintenance, Paul Treboutat, Chief Safety Officer, and Chad Maahs, Manager, Bus and Para Transit Operations, provided a verbal update and answered questions from the Commission. A copy of their slide presentation is filed with the Office of the City Clerk.
Lisa Bishop-Spencer, Director, Strategic Communications and External Relations, and Isabelle Jasmin, Deputy City Treasurer, Corporate Finance, also answered questions from Commission.
Commission received a letter from Mr. Jan Lam dated September 11, and a copy is filed with the Office of the City Clerk.
Kyle Humphrey and John Redins spoke before the Commission and provided comments on the presentation.
TSD staff undertook to provide information of the costs for a no-charge introductory period for Lines 2 and 4 at launch, as well as for Line 1 for that period.
Commission provided the following direction to staff:
Direction to staff (Councillor S. Menard)
The recent shutdown of the light rail system has had a significant impact on transit riders across the city.
Cities throughout North America and across the world—including Calgary; Boston, MA; Athens, GA; Tampa, FL; Tallinn, Estonia; Hasselt, Belgium; Akureyri, Iceland; Catania, Italy—as well as the state of Connecticut and the country of Luxembourg, have employed free transit as a policy tool to enhance public transit.
Transit Commission directs Transit Services staff to review associated cost and revenue impacts of providing six months of free transit for high-volume routes on congested major arteries—specifically Bank Street, Hazeldean Road, St. Joseph Boulevard, Montreal Road and Carling Avenue—as compensation for the recent shutdown of Light Rail Transit.