The future is suddenly uncertain for a pilot project that would give free bus passes to certain students at Clarke Road Secondary School because the London Transit Commission (LTC) decided not to sign a three-party agreement with City Hall and the Thames Valley District School Board.
“I’m quite disappointed,” said Councillor Peter Cuddy, who brought forward the original concept for a pilot project alongside Deputy Mayor Shawn Lewis. “This is something that we’ve been working on for a number of years and I don’t think it should be taken lightly.”
A tie vote (3-3) at a recent LTC meeting meant the public transit provider will not sign a Memorandum of Understanding outlining the responsibilities for each of the three partners during the two-year term of the pilot project.
“It’s not a hard no,” LTC Chair Stephanie Marentette told CTV News. “We’d be very happy to come to the table and talk about it. But at the end of the day, the LTC is the one that has to deal with rolling out this program. And if key concerns can’t be addressed, I’m not sure how we do that.”
The proposed pilot project would give free transit passes to Grade 9 students at Clarke Road Secondary School this September, and Grade 9 and Grade 10 students in year two.
A report to the Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee estimated the maximum total cost of the two-year pilot would be $977,000.
It recommended the funds come from one of city hall’s reserve accounts.
However, the report concludeed, “Without a commitment from all three parties, no further action can be taken.”
Marentette said the objectives of the pilot project remain unclear, as do the metrics that would be measured to determine its level of success.
“Are we trying to replace yellow (school) buses? Are we trying to deal with absenteeism, if they miss a yellow bus (then) they can catch an LTC bus? Are we trying to encourage extracurriculars?” she asked. “We don’t really have a clear indication of what is program is supposed to do.”
Council’s selection of Clarke Road S.S. as the site of the pilot project has also raised concern among some Commissioners that busy bus routes in the Argyle neighbourhood could be negatively impacted if students cause overcrowding during peak travel times.
Marentette believes there is too much uncertainty to launch the pilot project this September.
“I don’t think it’s going to be possible for this September. I think that this needs to be meaningfully studied, and we need to roll this out in an intelligent and thoughtful way.”
However, Cuddy remains optimistic that council’s timeline can still be met.
“I’ll work with my council colleagues, I’ll work with Deputy Mayor Lewis, and the mayor,” he said. “I think we can get this back on stream.”
The ward 3 councillor believes the pilot project would be transformative for participating high school students.
“This isn’t just a matter of getting to and from school, this is a change of lifestyle,” Cuddy explained. “This is an opportunity for kids to still get to school if they missed the (school) bus. They’ll have opportunities to get jobs after school.”
The decision not to sign the MOU exposed the transit commission to additional criticism from Cuddy.
He believes disabled Londoners who depend on the LTC’s paratransit system have not seen sufficient improvements.
“This is a decades old problem with LTC and paratransit. We gave them full authority to move ahead, and we haven’t seen those changes,” Cuddy claimed.
Marentette responded, “I’m just very curious as to where that feedback is coming from, because this is the first time that we’re hearing that these major service improvements being made are not in line with what that particular community is requesting of us.”
She says Smart Card Readers have recently rolled out on paratransit vehicles, and a new online booking system has been a “great success.”
In a letter to council, Marentette responded to another recent criticism of the LTC.
She rejected the notion raised at a recent council meeting that the transit commission failed to apply for a share of city hall’s Assessment Growth (property taxes on new construction) to fund service improvements.
“Under section 4.1.4, requests related to the expansion or enhancement of existing services are NOT eligible for funding,” she cited in the letter.
Marentette says council’s policy therefore excludes applications to increase the frequency of buses on congested routes.
Extending new routes into parts of the city that lack bus service might qualify, but those routes would ultimately connect passengers onto the congested core routes which need increased frequency that doesn’t qualify.
“We just don’t have any (business cases) that meet the criteria,” she said. “Would we happily accept funding for frequency improvements - oh yeah.”
Council’s Strategic Priorities and Policy Committee will consider Marentette’s letter, and the future of the student bus pass pilot project on March 25.
