Sudbury Transit gets tweaks as city budget talks wind down

Morning North5:40Sudbury municipal budget talks turn to Transit buildings and it's fleet

As budget talks wind down, Greater Sudbury city councillors turned their attention to the city's transit service. Much of the conversation focused on improvements to the downtown terminal and to the fleet itself. We have some of that discussion.Sudbury Transit is moving ahead to create one single pass for Handi-Transit and the conventional bus system.

Director Roger Sauve said he'll find out what's needed to merge the systems and report back.

Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh asked him to look into the matter at Thursday's budget deliberations.

Sauve said he can do it, but integration comes with a cost.

"It's something that we'd have to work through ... to try to integrate a system, but it may need a little extra capital investment on our Handi-Transit side to fully automate both," he said.

Sauve says he will present his report to a city committee later this year.

Sauve also told city councillors last night that Sudbury Transit plans to test a fixed TransCab route in Onaping Falls.

The service is expected to start in the next few weeks.

Sudbury city councillors are pushing for improvements to transit services, particularly as the service is having a hard time attracting users.

Ridership has remained flat for the past few years.

Ward 9 Coun. Deb McIntosh suggested sprucing up the transit terminal and its washrooms. The cost would be around $10,000. She said it would be money well spent, considering transit employees have a new fleet centre.

"We have a lovely garage — and it's a lovely well appointed building for our workers to work in. But it's not so nice for the transit users. I'd like us to find that $10,000 please."

Transit staff said they will look into McIntosh's request.