Question 1:
What role can transit play in reducing traffic congestion and mitigating increasing expenditures on road maintenance?
Burlington Transit can reduce traffic congestion by getting people out of the vehicles. It can also reduce the cost of transportation to the school boards’ yellow buses. If students would take public transit the boards could see a decrease in yellow bus costs and we could stop too many yellow buses on our streets.
With the reduction of cars and yellow buses on our streets, we may be able to extend the life of our roads and thereby reduce and extend our capital budgets.
Question 2:
In your opinion, what can be done to improve specialized transit for disabled riders and would you be in favour of raising the budget for this increasingly important service?
Communicate more effectively with ridership to streamline the rider’s experience. I would have to look at all the factors to determine budget implications.
Question 3:
Burlington’s and Halton’s Official Plans call for transit’s share of all trips to rise to 20% (from the current figure of about 4%) by 2031. Do you support this objective?
I do not believe Burlington will meet the objective by 2031.
Question 4:
With record ridership and increasing demand, are you in favour of supporting continued expansion of Burlington’s transit system?
I am not in favour of transit expansion until we review the current ridership to determine and demand.
Question 5:
Have you ever used Burlington Transit? Would you be willing to give it a try?
Yes, I have used Burlington Transit.
Question 6:
The Ontario Legislature recently passed Bill 98, the Building Homes and Improving Transportation Infrastructure Act, 2026, which gives the provincial Minister of Transportation the power to override municipal transit authorities and set routes and fares for municipal transit systems. We at BFAST have the following concerns about this legislation:
1) It could disrupt current arrangements between transit systems in Burlington, Oakville and Hamilton that provide connections between these cities.
2) The Minister could divert Burlington Transit resources — for example, to provide service along the planned bus rapid transit corridor on Highway 5 (Dundas St.), which was supposed to have been undertaken by GO Transit. This would, in effect, download more fiscal responsibility from the province to local governments.
3) Certain initiatives by Burlington Transit, such as free fares for seniors and students, could be eliminated.
Please comment on this legislation and what measures you would undertake or support to ensure transit service levels in Burlington would not be degraded.
Local government should be responsible for transit however, I believe transit could be better delivered by Halton Region to better integrate transit, between Towns and City, rather than the city providing the service.
Question 7:
Over the past months, a plan has been promoted wherein a private company would provide on-demand transit service to potentially replace certain routes operated by Burlington Transit. Among BFAST’s concerns with this plan are:
1) Over-reliance on one private company to provide a service that could not be easily replaced if the provider were to fail.
2) Cost escalation and more traffic on our roads as mini-buses replaced current vehicles and more drivers were needed to move the same number of passengers.
3) Diversion of already-constrained Burlington Transit budget to a private, for-profit company, resulting in lower levels of service.
We would appreciate your comments on on-demand transit in general and the idea of diverting public budgets to private corporations.
No transit companies make a profit therefore, I do not believe the private sector could produce a better travel experience at a lower cost than Burlington Transit provides.