The GRT has announced a new “university loop” bus route to replace the iXpress 201 and 202 short-turn routes. The announcement comes only a week after UW students voted to keep the U-Pass and accept a five-dollar fee increase in a referendum.
“We found some very heavy demands [on the 201 and 202] along the university corridor,” said Blair Allen, supervisor of transit development for the Region of Waterloo. Allen said that the solution originally had been to add short-turn routes to both the 202 and 201 however they found that it was not sufficient in meeting the rider demand.
The new 92 route will go from Columbia and Weber to Columbia and Fischer-Hallman to Fischer-Hallman and Erb to Erb and Westmount to University and Weber. The bus will service all of the stops along the route, rather than just the iXpress stops.
The new route will run on a trial basis until the end of winter and then GRT will decide whether or not to bring it back in the fall.
The 92 will only run during peak travel hours in the morning and afternoon. The GRT finds the 202 and 201 are sufficient enough in the late evening.
Allen said the introduction of the 92 is not the reason behind the five-dollar U-Pass increase that sparked the referendum earlier this month. He said the 92 ran on a trial basis early in the fall term. The GRT did not run any consultation or seek student feedback for the new route.
The GRT is also considering the future LRT when introducing new routes, taking into account where those stops will be and how the LRT will serve the university corridor.
Allen said the project was not introduced before the referendum for student consideration simply because it has not been finalized.
“Between them all, we think it’s working and from the initial results it seems to be effective,” said Allen.
