City of Elliot Lake Transit riders will have an easier time anticipating their bus stops next year. Along with that, It was during debate on the purchase of a new Creative Carriage bus to be added to the city's transit fleet that the desire of several council members for Sunday bus service came to the fore.
At Monday's session of Elliot Lake City Council, Mayor Dan Marchisella and three other councillors voiced a desire for an early test run on Sunday bus service. The Mayor told council Sunday bus service is high on his wish list. His views were echoed by councillors Luc Cyr, Ed Pearce and Tammy VanRoon.
Councillor Pearce said he was much in favour of the improvements to Elliot Lake Transit and he believes the new bus which is five-feet shorter than the three others in the fleet will be a big improvement. Along with that, Councillor Luc Cyr said passenger information from a new high tech system on each bus will be a help when it comes time to for the city to review bus routes.
The councillors made their voices heard as they debated the purchase of the new 21-foot Creative Carriage bus, which is five feet shorter than the 26-foot busses now in use in the current fleet. The new coach was approved at a cost of $126,000 plus HST, of which $62,000 is covered by a transit grant.
Also approved at Elliot Lake council was the purchase of the Automated Next Stop Announcement System from Strategic Mapping Incorporated of Toronto for each bus in Elliot Lake Transit. The cost for that is $85,800 plus HST for the four busses in the fleet. The units are transferable to new busses when old ones are retired. There is also a transit grant available which will cover the majority of those equipment and software and training costs.
The system uses independent GPS -fed electronic units which provide in-bus audio voice announcements that tell passengers where they are and when they'll be at the next stop. The Next Stop system also provides independent passenger counters which will allow city officials to have exact ridership figures for budgeting and planning purposes.
City of Elliot Lake Public Utilities Manager Darryl Halloch told members of council the new bus purchase plus hardware and software implementation of the Next Stop System plus the trial period for Sunday service, are all set for rollout in early 2019.