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Brampton transit could head northward
Wednesday February 11, 2009
- Brampton Guardian
The 30 line of Brampton Transit, a route which makes a stop on the south side of Mayfield and Airport Road, could be one of the Brampton lines heading north into Tullamore to service the employees of Caledon’s growing industrial centre.
Brampton buses will come north to service Caledon employees.
That’s the idea floated by Town of Caledon councillors.
And Caledon’s council accepted a motion on Tuesday which may lead to Brampton Transit crossing the border.
“We are going to try and reach an agreement with Brampton that will bring buses north into the industrial area (Airport Road corridor),” said Regional Councillor Richard Whitehead.
“Most of the people who work in these warehouses come from Brampton,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of the types of housing that attract the people who work in warehouses, and if we’re putting them in (industrial centres) we’d better do what we can to attract the employees.”
The Town is looking at reaching an agreement with Brampton that would see Brampton Transit buses, presently stopping at the intersection of Mayfield Road and Airport Road, continue up Airport Road into the growing industrial centre.
While specific numbers concerning buses and route times have not been established, according to Whitehead, the proposed service does have an estimated cost of $55,000.
And it is the cost, among other factors, which are making critics of the idea voice their own concerns.
“It has been tried before,” said Regional Councillor Annette Groves, “and we cannot afford it.”
Citing one of the Town’s past attempts at bringing Transit north, Groves said the Town has historically shown that it doesn’t have the ridership to pick up the tab for this service.
“If we are entertaining the idea of public transit in one spot,” said Groves. “It won’t be long before we see the demand rise in other areas. And, at this point, we cannot afford public transit.”
According to Whitehead, the finances would be picked up from transit revenues, as well as tax dollars.
The service into Tullamore has an estimated revenue of $15,000 a year, meaning taxpayers could be on the hook for approximately $40,000.
A figure Whitehead believes the Town is justified in picking up when the taxes paid by the industrial centres are considered.
One particular building, the 1,000,000 square foot AMB distribution centre, will pay approximately $260,000 in property taxes.
“The only services we as a Town provide them is Fire and Police,” said Whitehead. “The least we can do is provide their employees a way to get to work.”
At previous council meetings, AMB, along with Vitran Logistics (a tenant of the AMB building) have delegated to the Town for sidewalks for their employees who walk Airport Road to get to work, or a transit solution.
“This is something the entire area will benefit from, and it’s great for the (Town) of Caledon,” said Pat Antonucci, general manager at Vitran Logistics. “A lot of our workforce is coming north, and it has always been one of our concerns (transportation). This is a safety issue for anyone who is walking along that Airport Road corridor.”
But Groves would argue that while helping the emloyees who presently work in these areas is a good thing, she believes that pushing the live/work model of the Town will better serve Caledon in the long run.
“The other thing that concerns me about this is, is that the whole idea behind the ‘places to grow’ initiative is to build live/work communities,” said Groves.
“I’m not saying you’ll get that 100 per cent, you won’t, but we should be striving for it.
“We shouldn’t be relying on people (employees) from the outside, because then we are going to be forced to look at public transit.”
Groves also took issue with the Town catering to large industrial centres.
“We have an economic development department,” said Groves, concerned with the attraction of businesses that can employ people from Caledon. “That’s what we pay them for (to attract businesses who will seek their employees from Caledon) and we should expect them to do their job.”
Logistical details for the proposal, such as, how many buses will venture north of Mayfield, what times of day they will arrive, have not been released, as the motion was handled in-camera.
The idea did pass through a vote, and negotiations are now underway to see how this idea, can come to fruition.
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