How to do better in a tough GRT budget year

It’s municipal budget season, and transit is always a hot topic. In this post we’ll touch on the main themes of what the budget may mean for GRT and ION expansion, and where we see opportunities for improvement. Details of the Region’s 2026 (and prior year) budget deliberations are here under the budget committee agendas and the preliminary budget.

Earlier this year, Waterloo regional council committed to a maximum 5% property tax increase, making for a tough budget year considering inflation. Politicians tend to be wary of tax increases ahead of an election, though 2026 elections may be a moot point for most of them.

For Grand River Transit specifically, the drastic drop in Conestoga College enrollment means a $9m drop in projected fare revenue from 2025 to 2026. This throws a wrench into the new GRT Business Plan’s ambitious program of service expansion, which was to be implemented through the annual budget process.

The proposed GRT budget includes several cuts but no across-the-board fare increases. The overall Regional budget also includes some investment into early works for ION stage 2 development, and the few requests for new full-time positions are transit related.

ION Stage 2

The Region currently only has one dedicated full-time employee for ION Stage 2 development. The budget proposes to add a project coordinator and a project manager, as well as allocating $12m on the capital side for early works to potentially begin before the upper level governments come to the table with funding.

This is important for the Region to start building up in-house capacity in order to get the project built cost- and time-effectively. Being able to get property acquisition, more detailed design work, and utility relocations started earlier will reduce surprises later and help manage costs. It will also show that the Region is serious about building ION stage 2, and may help get the upper level government funding commitment sooner.

Fares and service

There are increases proposed to MobilityPlus taxi coupons, special 2-ride fare cards, and U-passes, but not to general fares. GRT is proposing to save a small amount by closing staffed customer service stations on Sundays and holidays due to a shift to self-service online and at fare vending machines.

GRT is proposing to hire a permanent fare inspector lead and six contracted fare inspectors for fare enforcement for buses, mirroring the approach already used on ION trains. The staff report indicates: “ION inspectors spend ~25% of their time on customer service, assisting passengers with navigation, accessibility, and fare payment education.” They indicate that fare evasion has increased and that the costs would be offset by increased fare revenue. It would also prepare for future proof-of-payment operations.

Opportunity: Show the benefits of a proof-of-payment approach immediately, by allowing rear-door boarding by riders with valid passes. This wouldn’t require installation of new fare readers, but would still increase speed and reliability on busier routes.

Opportunity: Update the agreement with the GRT fare vendor to enable debit/credit card fare payment. This would make it easier for people to try transit or use it occasionally, without needing an app or a fare card.

Some councillors have again expressed interest in wrapping ION trains to generate ad revenue. We have spoken against this, and believe this is a mistake. Window wraps degrade the rider experience on all transit, but beyond that, ION is the flagship of our transit network with iconic vehicles with large windows, which themselves serve as an advertisement for people to take transit and to build their lives and businesses around ION. Using ION vehicles as moving billboards is not worth the revenue and would be a strategic mistake.

Bus network

GRT is proposing minor extensions and tweaks to routes 14, 27, 36, and 206. They are also planning to introduce new and improved services for all four townships – a key aspect of the business plan – but only if it is funded through the Ontario Transit Investment Fund.

They are proposing to discontinue Route 110 College Express, and to reduce frequencies on Waterloo routes 9, 13, 19, and 30 to every 30 minutes. GRT indicates these routes are interlined with ridership “down up to 17%”, but it’s unclear which routes are down and how much.

The change to Route 110 is understandable, but the reductions in Waterloo routes hurt the network. The GRT Business Plan correctly focused on the need for a frequent service network, and instead this would see core routes 13 and 19 with relatively frequent weekday service no longer have it.

If we are trying to grow our region around transit with ION, we need to be building up the whole transit network.

Opportunity: Start an initial frequent service network to help create the momentum towards build-out, and to increase ridership. Currently at least ten routes (including the 13) have weekday frequencies of 15 minutes or better, but that information is hard to discover.

Opportunity: Make the frequency reductions conditional. Setting aside the boom-and-bust of Conestoga College enrollment, ridership is on an upward trajectory and is now above pre-pandemic levels. Perhaps with some of the suggestions above, we could see fare revenues increase and forestall the justification for reductions.

Feedback

This week is the second and final Public Input Meeting on the budget. If you have thoughts on the budget, you can share them respectfully with your Regional Councillors.