More buses are coming to Hamilton Mountain routes, along with a 5-cent increase

Hamilton transit riders will get more frequent service on the Mountainthis year if city council approves a steep 9.6 per cent budget increase.

The city is facing a $7 million increase in its transit budget this year, which is year five of a 10-year strategy to improve HSRand boost its ridership. The serviceimprovements alone will cost $4.23 million over two years, with projected fare revenue of $3.55 million, so year five of the strategy will costtaxpayers about $688,000 this year.

The planned increase includes more frequent buses along the A line from the waterfront to the airport, the 44 Rymalroute from Stoney Creek to Ancaster, and Stoney Creek mountain, said Jason VanderHeide, manager of transit planning.

On the A line, buses run every 20 minutes now at peak times, then 30 minutes in the afternoon until about 7:30 p.m. The new plan is for busesto run every 15 and 20 minutes, respectively, and until 10 p.m.

On the 44 Rymal route, buses run every 20-minutes during peak periods, then every 30 minutes in the afternoon and once an hour during evenings. The improvements will mean buses every 15 minutes during peak periods, 30 minutes in the afternoon, and every 30 minutes until 10 p.m. and every hour after that.

Transit patterns on weekdays

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Transit patterns on weekdays in Hamilton

For Stoney Creek Mountain, the improvements will bring together four routes at Heritage Green, VanderHeide said, so someone in Stoney Creek can travel "to Wards 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 14."

The changes, he said, will likely be in effect bySeptember, around the same time the price of an adult fare increases by five cents.

Ridership numbers, at least, show the 10-year transit strategy is working.

Debbie Dalle Vedove, the head of HSR, said in 2015, HSR provided 21,906,761 rides per year. That number dipped the following year to21,495,823. Council paused the strategy in 2017, and when it resumed in 2018, HSR provided 21,522,471 rides per year. Last year, there were 21,659,637 rides.

Overall, transit funding will be boostedto $81,396,000 in 2020, from $74,299,000 in 2019 although DARTS paratransit is a big driver in thatincrease.

Chad Collins, Ward 5 (Centennial) councillor, said in a budget meeting Friday that if taxpayers know more about future improvements, they'll see what they're getting for their money.

"We've put a lot of eggs in transit's basket," he said. "It's pretty hard to sell those enhancements, and the costs associated with them, when you can't tell people what's in the store nextyear, or the year after."

The transit budgetincludes 13 more buses, 35 new staff and about 46,000 more service hours.