No major changes planned for daytime transit schedule

Recent changes to evening schedules for Thunder Bay Transit buses means they’re now generally running on time — however transit officials are leery about doing the same for daytime schedules.

Thunder Bay Transit planning and marketing analyst Jon Hendel said changing daytime schedules is a different matter because passenger volumes are much heavier.

"We can optimize our schedule to make the arrival times more accurate," he said.

"We will do minor tweaks like that throughout the system, but there will be no major changes like we did in the evening service."

Hendel said it's also expensive to make significant schedule changes. But he noted transit's new master plan will address daytime capacity issues.

Looking for more frequent rides

For passengers like Parminder Singh, who rides the bus several times a day, the buses are generally on time.

But he said "the cross-town way, to Water St. Terminal" is one route that gives him trouble.

"That bus is sometimes ten minutes later."

Singh said the city's buses should run more often in the evening and not on a stretched-out schedule.

"It's 45 minutes now for every bus (in the evening)," he said.

"There's no shelter on many stops, so it's very difficult, like in snow ... I was thinking ...  there should be more services."

Hendel said says the recent changes to the evening schedule are working, and buses are more consistently on time.

However, the city won’t make any significant changes to daytime service before the city’s new master plan is implemented.

Thunder Bay Transit publicly released the new master plan last summer. A first report on the plan will be presented to council in February.