Regular transit service ‘very critical’: youth advocate

Moffat Makuto says it’s becoming routine that young people he works with show frustration with city bus service and the number of scrapped trips.

Makuto, who is the executive director of the Multicultural Association of Northwestern Ontario and works with the Regional Multicultural Youth Council, said cancelled routes have a “domino effect.”

“What we have really noticed is that when buses are cancelled, kids miss their appointments — whether it’s coming to study group or into any of our after-school activities,” Makuto said in an interview with Newswatch.

“For some it’s very critical because that’s when they want to make their community involvement hours to graduate, so failure to come on time — or if they come and the bus has been delayed and rather than (putting in) four hours, they end up putting in two hours.”

It becomes “very disruptive,” he added.

On Wednesday alone, Nextlift — the city’s transit information service — showed numerous planned route cancellations throughout the day from Thunder Bay’s two main terminals (waterfront and city hall), as well as from a major transfer point at Intercity Shopping Centre.

In addition, several transit users who spoke with TBT News Wednesday morning at the city hall terminal told of cancelled trips leading to it taking several hours to navigate getting from work to school to home, missing doctors’ appointments and having to walk long distances to run errands — including in inclement weather.

“All that is disrupted when the buses are unreliable, and we’ve noticed quite a lot of cancellations,” Makuto said.

Another concern, Makuto said, is safety.

“If the young person is waiting for the bus, not everyone has a phone and (if) the bus is cancelled, they might not know it until they just didn’t see the bus come,” he said.

“Waiting at a bus stop for hours is very inconvenient, I would say, and it really, in cold weather and when we have darker days early in the morning or in the evening, it’s put a lot of kids at risk that they almost end up not participating in things we want them to.”

Transit manager Brad Loroff and Amalgamated Transit Union local president Fred Caputo didn’t respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, Michelle Williams, the city’s manager of communications and public relations, provided a statement on Loroff’s behalf, confirming that administration is “proceeding based on council’s decision on March 3, and there are no further updates available.”

“We will share any additional information if it becomes available,” Williams’s email said.

Earlier in March, Thunder Bay city council voted down proposed temporary changes to bus schedules slated to start in May that administration said would have increased wait times between many scheduled trips. However, the proposed revisions, staff said, would have reduced the number of cancellations.

Transit officials cited staffing issues as the reason for making the proposal — effectively the system doesn’t have enough available drivers due to some existing vacancies, sick and disability leaves, vacation, training requirements and employees being temporarily assigned to other operational areas.

New hires must also complete a 15-week training period.

In February, Loroff said transit services has “a recovery plan in place” and said he expects service levels to return to more normal levels “towards the end of this year or in the latter part of this year.”

A report to city council said high cancellation rates result in “significant disruptions for passengers, resulting in increased travel times, heightened stress and a loss of trust in the reliability of public transportation.”

The city announced in mid-March bus fares would rise starting April 1. Those rate changes were approved as part of the 2026 municipal budget process.

Makuto, whose organizations buy bus passes for those who need them, said the young people he works with in the youth council’s downtown south core location come from all over the city — including neighbourhoods like Current River and Westfort.

“It should be a priority,” he said of improving service. “The size (of Thunder Bay) is so spread out, we really need something reliable.”

“That is really paramount, especially if we are talking also of the environment and … parents now (are) having to drive their kids to something we give the kids bus passes for.” – tbnewswatch.com

article website here

This is 100% management’s fault.  The driver issue was a problem for years.  Nothing was done to head this situation off.

It looks like management/administration was counting on City Council OKing their plan to reduce services.

How is it not possible, in today’s job/financial climate, to not find people eager to take a job with the city?  There are a lot of unemployed people in the city.  Has been for years.

The only reason I can think of is that the job sucks.  The work schedule sucks.  The pay is not worth the crappy work life that Thunder Bay Transit offers.   Why ids that?

Time to get rid of the Transit Manager and put someone in there that cares about the people who use that service. People serve better.

previous related post here