Brock Mayor Walter Schummer said the township is facing a major problem with transportation for residents.
Currently, the spread-out largely rural municipality is provided with only an on-demand service from Durham Region Transit (DRT).
“Transport is a regional responsibility, but it is an issue here,” Mayor Schummer told Durham Post in an interview. “It was quite an issue during the election campaign, and it continues to be.”
The issue is so serious that, he said, it seems almost on a weekly basis, top Brock officials are having conversations with DRT top brass.
There are no fixed routes in Brock, said the mayor while pointing out that a lot of people in the vast municipality don’t have a car, either can’t afford a car or don’t have access to a car. But to get to almost anywhere around you need some kind of transportation, he points out.
GO bus lost
“We lost the GO bus last year. There were a number of people in Brock who used that to get down to the GO station. That’s gone now.
“We’ve got people in different parts of the township, especially youth, again with no vehicle; they can’t even get a job because they have no way to get to work because a lot of the employment is up around the Beaverton area whether it’s the Independent [grocer] and Tim Hortons, you know typical youth jobs. They have no way to get there. It’s not really that far driving, but it’s certainly far walking,” Mayor Schummer pointed out.
He said on-demand is an excellent service—if it works and is reliable. “But the reliability rate right how is very poor.” There’s just constant problems with it. In fact, at transit executive meetings they finally started coming out with stats on the on-demand and the effectiveness of it. The stats are not good, said the mayor.
If it pick somebody up takes them to a doctor’s appointment in Uxbridge, it doesn’t bring them back. They’re stranded. It’s a real problem, the mayor said.
Fixed with On-demand mix
“I think there needs to be maybe a mix [of fixed and on-demand service]. There are certain times of the day that a fixed service could function,” Mayor Schummer said.
“I’ve spoken with [Durham Region] Chair and CEO John Henry, and said look, you know, most regional services are provided in the south. Now we have a lot of people that need those services – and those people do not have the resources for a car. So the transit is their only alternative.
“Hopefully there’s going to be a significant improvement in the budget for DRT for 2024. I think it’s about 7,000 hours of increased on-demand service in the north – though it’s not just Brock.
“I think this will be a bit of a watershed year for transit here. Can we rely on the system or do we have to go back to the drawing board,” said the mayor while pointing out that Brock has a spread-out geography.
“There’s a lot of municipalities that are not quite as big as we are or haven’t got as many roads to look after as we do, and that provides a unique challenge for us,’ Mayor Schummer said.
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