2024 Transit Service Plan- Service Enhancements Moving Forward

By Maurice Brenner Regional Councillor Ward 1 Pickering As 2024 rolled in, DRT riders experienced significant impacts across all Municipalities as a result of changes to a number of local routes. Why was this happening? DRT like all Regional departments set a service plan projecting a 5% increase over 2023, to meet Budget guidelines set by Regional Council. With growing competition of priorities such as the modernization of Durham Regional Police Services along with increasing pressures on Social Services and Housing caused by a lack of funding and affordability, DRT was required to reduce the 5% target to 2% and subsequently to 1.6% What was the route cause of the funding shortfall? All Municipalities along with the Association of Municipalities for Ontario (AMO) felt the impact of the Province of Ontario’s Bill 23 (More Homes Faster Act). Growth was no longer paying for growth and Municipalities were faced with 2 options to either transfer the burden to existing tax payers which would increase the economic hardship, or adjust service levels to minimize the economic impact. What does the 2024 DRT Service Plan look like and how will it adhere to the DRT Executive Committee Recommendation to provide costing to address the January 2024 Changes? The proposed 2024 DRT service plan and Budget of $474.2 million supports continued service enhancements, investments in growth infrastructure and fleet electrification, maintaining core service requirements and assets, actively engaging customers and stakeholders, and building an organizational framework to sustain DRT during a period of unprecedented growth, service modernization, and innovation. The proposed budget also includes several key initiatives including restoring some of the impacts from the January 2024 changes; The proposed service plan and Budget provides for up to 569,876 hours of annual scheduled revenue service and 174,692 hours of On Demand revenue service. As a result of the service model transition, this is the first year that DRT is reporting separate revenue service hours for scheduled and On Demand. The 2024 service plan includes an increase of 59,665 hours above the adjusted 2023 base service hours at an estimated net cost of $5.9 million and will provide for: • select resumption of service suspended in January within Ajax, Whitby, and Clarington that was reallocated in January to address growth demands across the system. This will provide service to areas of furthest distance to a transit stop. • new 7 day a week service in Pickering to to meet the growth needs of Seaton and those requiring transit along Whites Road. • Approximately 7,000 additional hours to support service reliability for select routes most impacted by known construction projects. • Approximately 5,000 additional service hours to improve reliability on select routes most impacted by increasing congestion. While these proposed enhancements is a good start, there remains much more that DRT will need to do to restore a level of public confidence in Durham’s Transit system through a more robust approach to community engagement. For those living in Pickering, I will be hosting a DRT Town Hall, Monday, March 21st at 7pm in the Arena O’Brien Room A & B in the back of the Chestnut Hill Developments Recreation Complex-1867 Valley Farm Road.