Hamilton’s public transit system will be unable to provide regular service next week, with cancellations continuing on at least seven bus routes into mid-September, according to an internal memo obtained by TPR.
Hamilton’s Acting Director of Transit Jeff Poljanski states in the memo that the earliest the HSR will be able to provide regular scheduled service is mid-September, with no firm date for the HSR to provide regular “extra” service to Hamilton’s secondary schools.
The internal memo, which the City did not intend to be shared with the public, states service cancellations will begin with Routes 51, 2 Barton, 20 A-Line Express, 22 Upper Ottawa, 25/26 Upper Wentworth and Wellington, 33 Sanatorium, and 44 Rymal. Poljanski states cancellations on other routes are possible.
Route 51 primarily services McMaster University students, Route 2 primarily services the lowest income areas of Hamilton, and Routes 20, 22, and 44 are heavily used by essential low-wage workers to get to warehouse jobs and the Maple Leaf plant.
During past significant service cancellations, which were the result of mismanagement, the HSR has completely cancelled service on route 51.
Numerous HSR front-line employees, granted anonymity because the risk of City Hall reprisal, say the problem relates to a change in procurement practices by HSR managers that resulted in a failure to properly order needed replacement parts for buses.
Poljanski’s memo states that if residents ask questions regarding HSR service, the recommended response is to say “some buses are temporarily unavailable while maintenance and repairs are completed,” and that “all affected routes are running, and service will improve as buses return to the road.”
In the memo, the Acting Transit Director recommends encouraging HSR riders to use third-party apps to see if the bus they plan to take is in service.
General Manager of Public Works Jackie Kennedy, in an interview outside of Monday’s Council Public Works Committee meeting, stated the HSR is “mitigating any impacts to service, as we always do.”
“Parts are coming in. Buses are being repaired,” Kennedy said. “There’s more buses going on the roads daily, we’re increasing the number of buses on the road.”
Service cancellations became widespread in the middle of August.
The HSR’s fleet of 60-foot articulated buses, the double-length buses that are the backbone of service to McMaster University and Mohawk College, is most impacted by the parts shortage. Only 26 of the 47 articulated buses were operational on September 3, 2026, according to real-time transit data transmitted by the HSR on Thursday.
Worsening the problem, the HSR’s annual purchases of new buses have not occurred this year, meaning the HSR continues to operate approximately 40 buses that are past their end of useful service. These buses are more prone to breakdowns, which has been occurring with frequency this summer.
HSR’s frontline maintenance workers have committed to working extra hours to install parts as they arrive and to get buses operational as quickly as possible.
The ongoing transit situation was not discussed at Monday’s Public Works Committee meeting. Ward 3 Councillor Nrinder Nann is the Chair of the Committee.
The expected bus cancellations come at the beginning of a new school year that will see classroom attendance and participation count for 15 per cent of final grades in Grades 9 and 10, and 10 per cent of final grades in Grades 11 and 12.
Due to the service shortage, the HSR has not posted the school “extra” schedules for this coming school year. The internal memo does not state an expected timeline for the HSR to resume secondary school “extras.”
This is a developing story. More information will be added on Friday as it becomes available.
Production Details
v. 1.0.0
Published: September 4, 2026
Last updated: September 4, 2026
Author: Joey Coleman
Update Record
v. 1.0.0 original version
Discussion
20 commentsAlways starting with the lower class, how disgusting as usual. This city couldn’t run a pee contest at a beer festival .
Decisions to cancel specific keys are made based on information such as trip frequency, ridership, and whether or not other routes service the same stops. It’s not a class-based decision whatsoever.
The upper class doesn’t take the bus, so any service cancellations would affect brokies more.
Another major blunder by the inept and unqualified.
October can’t come soon enough.
Possible change to City Council/Mayor won’t fix this unfortunately
Thanks for reporting on this Joey. I hadn’t heard about it, and often take some of these routes.
On the bright side, Classic Towing is keeping their heavy duty tow trucks busy.
We continue to pay more for service and get less service. On the other hand they continue to extract more money, yet be increasingly worse managed, and still have not retored buses to the frequency on primary routes we had when i was a kid, when bus on the 1 or 2 routes was every 6 minutes then became every 8 minutes, and has never been restored, this decline in service has been going on for atleast 3 decades.
Why wait until September, when summer vacation is over and students are heading back to school?
The shortage of busses has already been occurring throughout the summer but with the lighter schedule it hasn’t been noticeable to passengers but well known by the drivers who have had to wait to start their shift for busses to become available. The employee shuttle has been pulled a few times to because they don’t have busses available
The individuals managing these services for the city are too comfortable. This is a major error not a small mistake. These people are well paid, some might say overpaid, excellent benefit and pension packages and they can’t even deliver these services. Someone needs to be fired. The alternate universe these people live in where they are somehow allowed to not do their job and a still keep their job is ridiculous. It shouldnt take an extraction team to remove these incompetents from these positions. They clearly feel very entitled. The whole culture in these jobs needs to change. YOU ARE PUBLIC SERVANTS. DO YOUR JOB.
Blatant mismanagement is clearly the issue: The HSR mass hired operators who, for the most part, are terrible drivers. The result has been endless accidents due to simple negligence causing the province to sanction the HSR’s CVOR. This scantion is still in place and currently there is an entire fleet of new busses parked at the Mountain terminal which the HSR cannot put on the road because of this CVOR sanction. Meanwhile, the Birch Terminal has been plagued with problems: fire alarms, overhead doors that do not work, fuelling malfunctions, BEDBUGS, windows falling out, large chunks of concrete falling from the ceiling in the BTC parking garage, but everything is “up to industry standards” and they are checking off those KPI’s and happily bragging about following “best practisces” The people running the HSR are all a bunch of clowns. I have sympathy for the regular employees who have to deal with all of the “management” its preposterous that they are all allowed to remain employed. No accuntability.
I didnt read anything in the article about buses out of service due to accidents. Are you sure you’re blaming the right people? Usually it’s primarily the very top who bear the most responsibility for all the problems, and everything else is directly consequential from their ineptitude. They’re the ones who have to go. Don’t blame the drivers for this.
there should be no need for this if they were well maintained. BEDBUGS turns me off to travel by bus. Better to walk.
I take the bus threw out the summer to Turner park to play baseball. I think that the people that work on transportation should be made to take the bus to work and back home. Who knows what idea they come with, better then behind there desk or watercooler
This is total crap but only the tip of tje iceburg they should def get rid of management start anew. Now wait till the LRT starts its BS then things are going too be real fun.
Barton #2 runs more buses more often than most routes. Cancelling a couple of their runs will hardly be noticed. Multiple buses run to or through McMaster University and others run down Main St for easy access so comments about always the downtrodden suffering just isn’t so. Cutting back on 25.26 will hurt more.
Why the hsr have to this now. The citizens who have mobility and the seniors are stuck too
I am a senior who depends on route 22. I am not a low wage earner and have never worked in any factory. Without reliable bus service I have to use cabs which gets very expensive. Provide the service we pay taxes to have.
Sorry to hear this. HSR should of order the buses repair supplies earlier in the year so this would not be a problem as the schools open.