Bus service reductions head to city council for final approval

Despite attempts to find a compromise with the union representing city transit workers, a plan to reduce bus cancellations by increasing wait times is moving forward as-is.

Brad Loroff, manager of transit services, told Newswatch in an interview that the union, Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 966, brought several good ideas to the table, but some were already embedded into the plan, while others would have to be done voluntarily by staff.

This would mean bus drivers would be requested to work additional overtime or defer vacation time.

“It doesn’t produce enough of (a full time employee) savings that allows us to confidently tell people: you know, we’re going to be able to, for the most part, eliminate the cancellation issue for the summer period,” he said.

Loroff said there isn’t enough staff to “eliminate the cancellations that are happening right now.”

The number of bus cancellations increased over the course of 2025, with one in 20 busses being cancelled by the end of the year, according to a staff report.

“So, it’s because of that we’re still continuing to think that the best approach would be to do a reduced service level structure for the summer period,” he said.

Loroff said one of the ideas discussed between management and the union was modifying route frequency, so scheduled stops line up better when transferring buses.

“Rather than having some routes at 45, some routes stay at 30, some routes stay at 15, the advantage of putting it all at one frequency for the most part, which is 45, is that it helps with passenger connections. It reduces the wait time that passengers will experience when they’re connecting buses,” he said.

Under the proposal, the 3J Jumbo Gardens and 11 John routes, which run during peak weekday hours (between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m.), would be taken out of service and replaced by the 13 John-Jumbo during peak hours. Buses would run every 45 minutes.

Most other bus routes will see an increase in wait times during peak hours from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. 3M Memorial will increase from 15 minutes to 22 minutes.

The 1 Mainline is the only route that would see wait times reduced, down to 22 minutes from 30 minutes during peak hours and running every 45 minutes during off-peak hours.

If approved by council on Tuesday, the changes won’t take effect until May 10.

Loroff said once service reduction takes effect, transit services will have some recruits to train and, as more drivers become available over the summer, they will be able to stabilize both the conventional bus service and Lift+ service.

“We’ve gone for a period of time where passengers have experienced unplanned cancellations and it’s difficult for us because these things happen in the last minute. We can start a service day with a full service, and with unplanned sick leave that occurs, we could be midday with not having enough staff to provide the service. And it’s very hard to communicate that with people,” he said.

“So we use our Next bus tool. It’s an electronic tool, but if you’re travelling without a phone or if you’re travelling without a mobile device where you can’t check it immediately, you’re not gonna be aware of it. So, it has disadvantages for passengers because these unplanned things are hard and difficult. This is the best way to provide a more predictable and reliable service for folks.” – tbnewatch.com

article website here

• if you have a hard time finding employees for a job with the City of Thunder Bay in these tough job market times, then something is wrong with the job.  Either the pay sucks, the hours suck, the job itself sucks, management sucks or a combination thereof.  My understanding is the hours are terrible.  Scheduling is terrible. Dealing with some of the transit users is terrible.  Was anything done to improve any of those?  You know, make the job more desirable?
• Decisions being made to transit service cuts are being made by people who do not use city transit, people who do not depend on city transit to get to and from work.
• Waiting 45 minutes for a bus is in unreasonable.
• Remember when these same ‘deciders’ wanted to have zero transit service on holidays?   That was actually something they considered.

I wonder if this is a test to see how the public will adapt to fewer buses?  If there are no complaints, then this scheduling may return in the future only permanently.