Grand River Transit - Overview

Overview

On January 1, 2000, the Region of Waterloo created GRT by assuming the operations of the former Kitchener Transit (which also served Waterloo) and Cambridge Transit from these cities. By the end of that year, operations had been fully synchronised and buses began running between Cambridge and Kitchener; as a result, ridership in Cambridge improved dramatically, and there have been increases in service, including Sundays and late evenings Monday-Saturday.

In recent years, many new low-floor, wheelchair-accessible buses have been purchased, principally from Nova Bus, Orion, and New Flyer, and these now constitute the majority of the fleet. Most operating buses are less than twenty years old, though a few older buses are used primarily for high-school special runs. GRT has also in recent years installed bicycle racks on the front of its buses in order to encourage the use of sustainable transport; all standard and express buses now have these racks.

Service to less dense areas is provided by the busPLUS system, large vans which take regular fares on scheduled routes to new neighbourhoods and more remote facilities; if ridership is sufficiently high, these services can later be replaced with regular buses, as happened with the 71 Melran route in Cambridge.

GRT also operates MobilityPLUS, which provides specialised transit for disabled patrons using minibuses equipped with wheelchair lifts.

The GRT fleet consists entirely of motor-buses; although the former Kitchener Transit operated trolleybuses earlier in their history, these had all been withdrawn during the 1970s, well before the systems were merged. They have continued operating 23 compressed natural gas-driven buses inherited from Kitchener Transit but have not expanded this fleet; these buses are to be retired before the end of 2009. Until the 1950s, the area was served by electric passenger and freight trains run by the Grand River Railway, who even earlier in the 20th century had run streetcars on city streets before the separated railway lines were built.

Effective September 1, 2007, all undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo are required to purchase a 4-month UPass for less than a quarter of the equivalent adult monthly pass.

On February 14, 2008, the members of CAW4304, which represents GRT employees, planned to go on strike. However a tentative agreement was reached before the deadline of 12:01 AM and the strike was averted.