Hamilton city council approves service disruptions on underperforming HSR routes

Nineteen thousand hours of municipal bus service are about to disappear as city council chips away at Hamilton’s 2020 operating budget.

Director of Transit Debbie Dalle Vedove says the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) cuts are in the form of adjustments to frequency on about two-dozen “underperforming” bus routes.

Dalle Vedove describes it as “our best recommendation around what we can do to mitigate some cost with the most minimal impact to our current customers.”

She says that it is “not about removing any those services, it’s about adjustments to timing,” which, according to a staff report, will result in customers waiting up to another 15 minutes for an HSR bus in some cases.

Once the budget is approved, the adjustments will save taxpayers about $800,000 for the remainder of 2020. The savings for a full year are estimated at about $1.7 million.

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The staff report was requested several weeks ago by Ancaster Coun. Lloyd Ferguson.

In voting in favour of the adjustments, which were approved in a vote of 13 to 2 on Wednesday, Ferguson described it as a “use it or lose it situation.”

Ward 14 Coun. Terry Whitehead added that he’s focused on budget savings and “creating efficiency and affordability” for taxpayers.

Ward 1 Coun. Maureen Wilson voted against the adjustments saying she “can’t assess who is going to be impacted” or what the impact will be on “efforts to try to attract new riders.”

This year’s projected average residential tax increase is currently at 3 per cent, but efforts continue to whittle that down.

Hamilton city council hopes to approve the 2020 operating budget at a meeting on April 1.