Waterloo regional council voted on April 24 to temporarily reintroduce the route 91 late night loop. This came after months of lobbying from UW’s NDP and Climate Justice clubs, including a petition which gathered over 1,200 signatures.
Route 91 will come into service after the next rerouting of GRT buses, expected to happen by September 2. This would make night routes available from the start of the fall semester. The route is confirmed to run three days of the week – Thursday, Friday, and Saturday – however, this schedule is expected to be extended in the future if the route yields a sustainable amount of ridership.
“Students don’t only exist, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, we continue to live in the city, we continue to go around and night shift workers don’t only work on those days,” said Damian Mikhail, the co-leader of the UW NDP club. “But we’re also going to be working with GRT during those consultations. GRT does see night transit as a priority for them when they’re doing their transit review.”
Late night route 92, which was also proposed in the original motion, remains under review, with the regional council citing the need to assess financing possibilities before it becomes confirmed. The time-scale for this remains unclear, however student clubs remain optimistic that the confirmation of route 91 is a step in the right direction for the implementation of night transit routes.
