Keep York Moving sees hope of bringing direct bus routes back to university

About 1,000 students, staff and faculty are now walking between 0.7 and 1.2 km from Steeles Avenue

Yorkregion.com
March 11, 2019
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Keep York Moving sees some progress towards bringing direct buses back to York University following York Region’s committee of the whole meeting on Thursday, March 7.

“Hope isn’t lost,” said Fred Winegust, one the co-founders of Keep York Moving.

“We finally got York Region and (York Region Transit) YRT agreeing with us to go over what needs to be done,” said Winegust, who ran unsuccessfully for a seat on Vaughan and regional council in last municipal election.

Winegust together with Peter Miasek, his Keep York Moving’s counterpart, made two deputations that “generated quite a bit of discussion” to bring to light some new points forward that the committee wasn’t “aware of.”

After their presentations, “it’s anticipated a report from Regional staff on this issue will be brought back to Committee and Council for discussion and deliberation in May,” said York Region’s Patrick Casey, Director of Corporate Communications.

Fred Winegust and Peter Miasek, co-founders of Keep York Moving speak to York Region council after their deputations. Winegust said walking distance to campus was so much shorter when direct bus services were available. (Screen grab from York Region)

Students and staff were angered after the complete stoppage of direct bus services to York University campus. The direct routes were stopped in hopes of encouraging about 4,600 York University students and staff to use the TTC services in Vaughan.

Citing a figure from Paul Jankowski, York Region’s Commissioner of Transportation Services, Winegust said during the deputation about “1,000 students, staff and faculty are now walking between 0.7 and 1.2 km from Steeles Avenue.”

This distance goes beyond YRT’s “distance to bus stop” guidelines of 500m, Winegust added during his deputation.

Winegust said it’s unclear what the 3,600 others are doing. “Are they driving? Have they decided to not to go university or pay the extra three dollars.”

Early this year, Keep York Moving filed an FOI to understand why is it hard for the YRT to restore its direct services in case there is a heavy penalty by the TTC.

Keep York Moving suspects that TTC’s punitive fees if YRT restores the routes are $8.2 million, and they are hoping that the May report will confirm this figure.

They also hope to escalate the talks to a political level by engaging Toronto and York Region thoroughly.

“We issued a Freedom of Information request in January, but put it on hold after we met with YRT management and learned that they would be submitting a report to Council in February, as part of the budget process,” said Miasek.

“But we were very disappointed that this report turned out to be one slide in the February 14 presentation to the Committee of the Whole that raises more questions than it answers,” he added.

Miasek said there is information on the “survey methodology, time of year or what the other 3,600 riders are doing. Have many of them stopped taking transit altogether?”

He also lambasted the lack of data on “ridership changes on the subway, which presumably should have increased since September.”

In an email to York Region Media, the TTC said: “In general, by the end of 2018 the total ridership on the new subway extension, between Sheppard West Station and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre Station, was approximately 94 per cent of the projected ridership.”

It added: “Since then, changes have been made to York Region Transit/VIVA and GO Transit connecting bus services, and we expect that ridership has increased further.”

However, for Miasek the TTC puts the weekday ridership at Pioneer Village Station at 17,300 in the Fall 2018.

“What was it in spring 2018?” he asked during the deputation. “Did the increase of 4,600 - 3,600 ever materialize? And how do you factor in the removal of free parking at Pioneer Village in April 2018, as well as the impact of the York University strike, on the number.”

Meanwhile, Keep York Moving had previously told Ontario's transportation minister that commuter travel times have increased up to 20 minutes a day and travel costs have increased to $6 a day ever since the launch of the TTC extension in Vaughan and stoppage of direct bus services.