Increased Sunday bus service is a positive for mall workers

Kayla Rucha is just trying to get by.

She works two jobs and more than 40 hours a week to help pay her bills. She’s constantly working long workdays and picking up extra hours of work.

To make things more complicated, Rucha doesn’t own a car – but has to go seven kilometres each way to travel to her jobs at Devonshire Mall.

This leaves her with two options: Take the bus and automatically be late for work as the earliest bus arrival is the starting time of her opening shift – or take a $15 to $20 cab ride to work a five-hour shift.

Rucha said while her work is understanding of the bus schedule and flexible with her work schedule, she’s still paying too much money just to get to work.

“I constantly had to tell my manager I would be several minutes late,” said Rucha. “The cab rides add up quickly.”

Last month, Windsor council approved more than $842,000 to increase service, including adding trips to the Sunday schedule.

“Finally, no more cab rides,” said Rucha, thrilled when she heard the news.

“I’m 100 per cent going to save because I’m already paying for an adult pass and then the cabbing on top. Hopefully there’s better connecting buses. I currently take the 1C and then the 1A,” said Rucha.

Pat Delmore, executive director for Transit Windsor, said he knows the main lines to Devonshire Mall are experiencing overloads. He said Transit Windsor’s planning department is looking into where they should invest 50 hours into the schedule for Sundays.

Delmore said the increase to bus service on Sunday is all part of a new $135-million Transit Windsor Master Plan, which will see major improvements to service and routes over the next eight years.

“Through a public consultation we heard very clearly from our riders that Sunday is just another day of the week now,” said Delmore.

While the money and approval are now set, changing the schedule won’t be a quick fix. According to Delmore, it takes several months to put such a plan in place. He believes it won’t be until early summer before Transit Windsor can have this implemented. In the meantime, they’ve added more buses on the Sunday rotation.

Transit Windsor buses are on the road 365 days a year, for approximately 21 hours a day and travel more than four million kilometres annually.

“This is a positive step city council has made,” said Delmore. “This was just one baby step towards achieving some of the goals that are in that master plan with improved Sunday service. With council support and approval, we’re able to get this going right away, because there’s such a need for it.”