Service reductions as mechanic shortage sidelines 20 London Transit buses each day

Roughly 20 buses are taken off the road each day because of a shortage of diesel mechanics. CTV’s Daryl Newcombe has the story.

Western’s University Students’ Council (USC) has received an “unprecedented” number of complaints from students about London Transit’s bus service so far this semester.

On Monday, leadership from the USC attended the London Transit Commission (LTC) meeting to discuss the impact of recent service reductions on students.

“They’re being skipped at their stops, they’re unable to get to their part-time jobs, or the downtown area or to campus on time,” USC President Kathleena Henricus explained.

Each full-time undergraduate student receives a mandatory London Transit bus pass included with their annual student fees.

“Western students are the single largest source of LTC fare revenue, funding roughly 30 per cent of the annual budgeted fare revenue,” Henricus reminded the Commission.

According to the LTC’s Fall Service Update, an inability to recruit enough mechanics has forced temporary route suspensions and frequency reductions.

The report states, “vacancies in this employee group represent 12.5 per cent of the workforce.”

G.M. Kelly Paleczny tells CTV News that about 20 buses are being kept off the road each day.

To compensate for the reduced number of available buses, Express Routes 92 and 95 have been temporarily suspended, and nine other routes have experienced frequency reductions (Routes 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, 27, 33, 94 and 106).

Paleczny explains that the suspended express routes have alternates that run along the same corridors, and the frequency reductions are on the routes that previously had the highest frequencies.

Meanwhile, the delivery of 34 new buses from the manufacturer, based on bus replacements scheduled in 2024 and 2025 has placed additional pressure on the already depleted workforce.

Each new bus requires about 107 hours of work being fitted with London Transit equipment prior to entering service on the road.

“We anticipated crowding concerns even if we would have had all the busses,” Paleczny admits. “This is just making matters a little bit worse for us.”

Councillor Skylar Franke, who chairs the LTC, expects service will improve as more of the new buses get equipped for the road.

“We’re hoping by mid-November we’ll have all the buses available out on the routes and picking up those service times that we had to drop,” Franke said. “So hopefully in the next two months, (but) earlier is obviously better so we’ll make every effort for that.”

The LTC supported several requests made by the USC delegation, including to share data about overcrowded buses and routes.

They also committed to work collaboratively on addressing the current challenges and advocating for additional government funding for public transit.

“We’re very much looking forward to working with the Commissioners and LTC staff on joint advocacy at all three levels of government to get more funding for the LTC, more funding for students and the London community,” Henricus told CTV News after the meeting.

The next meeting of the London Transit Commission is Oct. 27.