Starting April 8, the transit arm of Middlesex County is adding a third route to its operations, linking St. Thomas to London and Dorchester, initially with four services per day, Monday through Saturday.
The initial announcement was made by St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston at the March 11 meeting of city council.
We spoke this week with Cindy Howard, General Manager of Finance and Community Services at Middlesex County and she outlines the new St. Thomas service.
The bus will also stop at Valleyview Home on trips to and from London.
The bus operator will be familiar to St. Thomas residents, explains Howard, as Voyago provides the service for Railway City Transit.
She notes the buses will be branded as Middlesex County Connect.
St. Thomas residents will be able to hop aboard a Voyago bus for the trip to White Oaks Mall where they can transfer to London Transit to complete their trip to school, work or medical appointments.
Howard confirms a one-way ticket is just $5.
She adds children under six, support persons and veterans ride at no cost.
We asked Howard about expanding the route, perhaps out to the Amazon Fulfillment Centre.
Howard explains “We do get funding from the Province of Ontario through community grants for transit. We started working with the province around 2018 and launched in 2020 and we applied for additional funding for this new route.
“So, it is still a pilot program and the funding is in place until March 2025.
“And our municipality, similar to others, is looking at the future sustainability of the service.
“I can say the service is going great with the other two routes. It takes time to build that culture of transit.
“We have been seeing some great strides and great improvement in the number of riders we have for both routes. And we really expect Route 3 will be very successful as well.”
