117 permanent barriers installed in Windsor buses

117 permanent driver barriers were installed as part of its continued effort for safety standards against COVID-19, according to the Transit Windsor Advisory Committee 2022 annual report.

The Transit Advisory Committee presented the annual report in the council meeting on Feb. 13 2023.

“In the event that COVID resurfaces or never truly disappears, we believed it was best to protect our drivers,” said Gary Kaschak, Windsor city councillor, Ward 8. “We believe that this is a smart health and safety strategy to protect our drivers and potentially avoid them having sick days.”

Kaschak said they provide the local government the budget, and they are now attempting to purchase barriers from within Canada or North America.

Transit Windsor introduced a new route to the surrounding towns of Windsor in 2022.

According to Kaschak, they are trying to make transit regional.

“There are seven surrounding municipalities outside of Windsor here: Amherstburg, LaSalle, Lakeshore, Tecumseh, Leamington, Kingsville and Essex,” said Kaschak. “Eventually, we would like for all the transit in Windsor to serve all these towns. We could have a really good regional transit system instead of just a city-wide transit system.”

Kaschak said the government launched 24 new buses and decommissioned the old 24 buses.

“Some of these are hybrid buses which will use less gasoline,” said Kaschak. “Due to their hybrid nature and lower air emissions, they assist us in coming closer to our long-term emission reduction targets.”

According to the annual report, the federal government allotted $100 million CAD for the progression of Transit Windsor.

“A new Transit Windsor garage will eventually be required so that some of these buses can be stored there together with an electric charging station,” said Kaschak. “Also, we require new machinery like air compressors. We also need to replace a few terminals and install a new automated fare collection system in our current building. Thirty-four additional buses are scheduled to arrive.”

Kaschak also added that most of the $100 million CAD will be used for system improvements and efficiency-creating measures.

Tyson Cragg, the executive director of Transit Windsor, said after the pandemic they had a lot of trouble returning to their regular routine.

“During the pandemic, due to retirements, resignations and others, we have lost a number of drivers,” said Cragg. “It took us a long time to get those staffing levels built back up to the point where we had an adequate number of drivers to run the service.”

According to the annual report, Transit Windsor launched social media for the very first time.

“The City of Windsor has its own social media presence, and having our own social media presence, it’s allowed us to get that information out in a much timelier manner to our passengers,” said Cragg. “We thought we were from a perspective that we were in a safe enough position there to offer the full service in a safe manner.”