Lambton Shores officials pursuing new funding for Huron Shores Area Transit system
Lambton Shores has pledged up to $50,000 to keep Huron Shores Area Transit running through the end of April as officials with the regional bus system work to put new long-term funding in place.
Launched in late 2020, the system was used by more than 25,000 riders last year travelling between Grand Bend, Sarnia, Goderich and London but its provincial funding ends March 31.
“Huron Shores Area Transit has become a vital service for our community and surrounding areas,” Lambton Shores Mayor Doug Cook said in a news release.
“By providing the additional funding required for another month, we remain optimistic that sustainable funding solutions can be secured to ensure this essential service continues to serve the residents of Lambton Shores and surrounding communities,” he said.
The system, which has a contract with Voyago to provide buses and drivers, has been funded by a combination of rider fares, advertising on buses, Ontario gas tax transit funding, municipal contributions and an Ontario community transit grant set to end March 31.
Lambton Shores chief administrator Steve McAuley said the transit system has been working to secure new funding from municipalities and applied for funding from a new Ontario transit investment program announced last fall.
The system serves workers, students, seniors and other residents in need of affordable transportation between communities, Lambton Shore said in a report.
Along with the interim funding, Lambton Shores has committed to contributing $72,000 a year in the future. There also have been commitments for funding from Bluewater and South Huron, and the system is working with Kettle and Stony Point First Nation on a commitment, McAuley said.
Current system partners Lucan Biddulph and North Middlesex are not expected to continue participating, the report said.
McAuley said the system also has approached Plympton-Wyoming about tapping into gas tax transit funding available to it so it can join the system with a bus stop in Wyoming.
Plympton-Wyoming council is “very receptive” to the idea, said Mayor Gary Atkinson. “Our residents have been asking for it.”
Similar conversations are happening with officials in Goderich, McAuley said.
“Every municipality, every partner we bring on opens up more gas tax funding for us,” he said.
Communities must be providing transit service to access gas tax transit funding, McAuley said.
It’s hoped new long-term funding for the system can be in place by the end of April.
“As long as we get the province to contribute their part” through the transit investment fund, “we should be in business,” McAuley said.
“It’s a puzzle on a bunch of different fronts,” including creating routes and putting funding in place, he said.
The system’s main routes cost about $1 million a year to operate, McAuley said.
“We’re one of the most successful rural transit systems in Ontario, in terms of ridership and how we’ve grown the system,” he said.
Along with its regular routes, the system offers employee shuttles for businesses in Grand Bend and Exeter relying on student workers from Lambton College, McAuley said.
“Council heard from those employers that this was an important service,” he said.
“We’re pretty excited to be able to carry the service on and hopefully grow it to the point where maybe it becomes a regional system operated by a county, or something like that,” McAuley said.
“We just encourage people to look at it as an option to move around,” he said.
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