It happened again today—Hamilton’s public transit system experienced a major disruption on a major road leaving downtown.
What is different is the impact was minimized by good schedule planning.
Around 2:45 p.m., the Hamilton Fire Department responded to a structure fire call on King Street West between Bay Street and Caroline Street.
Major HSR routes were delayed.
This time, thanks to funding increases by City Council that permit the HSR to schedule more “recovery time” at the end of the line, the schedule impact is minimal.
Due to lane closures, westbound buses were delayed 10 to 15 minutes. Once they arrived at the end-of-line [University Plaza, Meadowlands, or the West Hamilton Loop], the scheduled 10-minute break enabled buses to recover to schedule.
One hour later, as I write this at 3:45 p.m., all impacted routes are operating on-time.
In past years, this kind of disruption would reverberate for hours because buses wouldn’t be able to get back on schedule.
Mayor Fred Eisenberger’s micro-managing was a significant cause of the 2017 HSR scheduling fiasco, when the City stopped tracking on-time performance. He demanded that the HSR minimize recovery time and that it be eliminated from most routes.
Yes, recovery time costs money.
Reliability matters.
The HSR is experiencing significant increases in ridership because people can be confident that the bus will show up on time.
There needs to be a lot more than there is still. I hear a lot of the drivers complaining that they haven’t been out of the seat for hours and need to stop at a Tim Hortons or something for a quick pee because there isn’t any time at the end of the line. I also hear them complaining that they still don’t have proper washrooms at the end of each line that are clean/maintained so trying to use a washroom after restaurants close their dining areas and go to Drive-Thru only makes it hard. Try not having any sort of break for hours, can’t go pee, and trying to keep on time. The Barton busses and Bayfront’s I have to ride on regularly all have these poor drivers on them that don’t get enough time.
Yes, definitely a problem on some routes. Thank you for commenting.