A survey is available for North Perth residents on an upcoming pilote project for an inter-county transportation service.
Perth County is looking to partner with its municipalities, and the Kitchener and London areas to create transportation hubs to connect the region. Charles Fitzsimmons, the Intercity and Intracounty Transportation Coordinator for Perth County and the City of Stratford, says Stratford's proposal was for an intercity service.
"That would connect Stratford, North Perth and St. Marys with Kitchener-Waterloo and with London. So three routes were contemplated for that."
The project aims to connect and provide bus access from St. Marys, Stratford, and Listowel, to inter-modal transportation hubs in Kitchener and London, and connect the communities of Atwood, Brunner, Gads Hill, Listowel, Millbank, Milverton, Mitchell, Monkton, Newton, Sebringville, St. Marys, and Stratford. Fitzsimmons says the survey will better help all the partners involved figure out how best to roll out the project.
"The survey is a planning tool for us to try to figure out the best times and places for the routes to stop."
Once the partners involved get all the survey data in, Fitzsimmons says they can then begin asking more focused questions such as transportation hub best locations, what a fair price is for fares, ideal travel times and it will help them better plan how to roll out the project with local stakeholders.
Once all those details are sorted out, they can start writing out requests for proposals, and Fitzsimmons notes they're looking for an entrepreneurial approach where a service provider will partner with the City of Stratford and Perth County and other partners, to offer a service that is attractive and easy for people to use, and will better connect communities. Fitzsimmons says the pilote project should launch in spring of 2020. The survey will be followed by a community open house and focus groups, with dates yet to be announced.
The survey is available online, including on the North Perth website, until Thanksgiving Day on October 14th. A link is available here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/QHNJB78