Hamilton’s public transit agency has failed to provide basic information in advance of this year’s edition of Supercrawl, again.
Public transit riders woke up Thursday morning to discover dozens of bus routes on detour, with no detour information on the City of Hamilton website.
This is the case despite an apology last September from HSR Director Maureen Cosyn Heath and a commitment from City Manager Marnie Cluckie that the HSR would not forget about Supercrawl again this year.
HSR’s 2024 apology issued after the transit agency’s managers failed to provide Supercrawl detour to the public.
Cluckie’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding this year’s repeat failure.
Mayor Andrea Horwath’s office responded to questions by noting the HSR uploaded detour information. The HSR only uploaded the information after the public called out the oversight.
(Buried on the City’s of Hamilton’s mapping website is a list of detoured bus routes. It did not provide what the detours were.)
Neither answered why the HSR has not implemented the “improvement plan” that has been promised multiple times.
The HSR’s “improvement plan” was first promised following the events of July 22, 2024.
On that day, at approximately 12:22 p.m., a four-alarm fire occurred at the YMCA Men’s Residence on James Street South. The resulting road closure forced 19 HSR bus routes to detour.
Because it was a Monday, none of the HSR’s dozens of managers were available to immediately respond to the situation. It took over two hours before a manager was found and HSR began communicating detour information.
At the time, Cluckie attributed the failure to “human error” and stated the City was “taking measures to fix the problem.”
Cluckie promised that the City was “implementing” measures to “set some targets in terms of the amount of time” it takes to share detour information with the public.
“I recognize this isn’t the first time,” she continued. “It is the first time I’ve been alerted to it … when I learned of it, I took immediate action.”
HSR Managers and Admin Staff Still Not Required to Work Scheduled Shifts or Peak Transit Hours
This Council term has created approximately 750 new full-time positions since taking office in October 2022. Many of the positions are to address work tasks that are not being completed.
The current number of HSR managers is unknown.
Hamilton City Council no longer provides a listing of staff positions.
However, it is known the number of sections within the HSR management chart has doubled.
HSR transit managers are presently expected to visit their offices in Hamilton a minimum of two days per week.
However, they are not expected to respond in-person to major situations, and are not required to be on duty during peak transit times of 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
HSR front-line staff had to continue in-person work during the COVID pandemic, and continue to work scheduled shifts with both performance expectations and measurement.
Some other large municipalities returning to pre-COVID in-person five-day work weeks. Hamilton City Council has decided to maintain the status quo.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford has called on municipalities to return to pre-COVID in-person work weeks.
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Published: September 14, 2025
Last updated: September 14, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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