The two cities are but 20 minutes apart, but without public transit, getting from St. Thomas to south London without a personal vehicle can be a daunting challenge.
Yes, you can ride share or cab it to the Forest City at a hefty $50 to $60 one way.
It wasn’t always this way. Several operators have offered a service between the two centres including Aboutown Transportation, Grey Bruce Air Bus, the iconic Greyhound and best of all, the London & Port Stanley Railway.
The ‘Hound left St. Thomas for the final time on April 10, 2010. By that point, it had been reduced to a Friday-only service that meandered from London through St. Thomas and then continued to Niagara Falls. A return trip operated on Saturday from the Falls to London.
At the time, Greyhound Canada vice-president Stuart Kendrick told us with just a handful of passengers hopping aboard the bus for the scenic service, it’s a matter of economics that will be mirrored on other inter-city routes in the province.
How true that proved to be.
The company said in 2009 it needed $15 million in government aid to subsidize its unprofitable routes or it would be forced to implement service cuts.
Kendrick, whose father drove for Greyhound in this area, suggested discontinuance of the route through the city would end approximately 60 years of serving St. Thomas and Elgin.
However, relief is on the way in the form of Middlesex County Connect through its Southwest Community Transit operation.
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.
We spoke this week with Cindy Howard, General Manager of Finance and Community Services at Middlesex County and she outlines their present service.
“We currently have two routes and this is the third route. We are adding this new route which is inter-community transit between Dorchester and London and then to St. Thomas.”
Route 1 connects Lucan with London.
Route 2 runs from Woodstock to London.
Route 3 will be the St. Thomas service which will start at the FlightExec Centre in Dorchester, and proceed through London with stops at the Wilton Grove Industrial Park and White Oaks Mall.
It will then continue down Wellington Road toward St. Thomas, stopping at Valleyview Home and the industrial area before reaching the Transit Hub in the city’s east end.
“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.”
Howard continues, “We currently have a contract with Voyago to operate our service and we are going to continue to work with Voyago to do the new route.
“Voyago has been a great partner and we’re both really excited about starting this new route.”
Voyago is also the operator of Railway City Transit in St. Thomas.
While a final schedule has yet to be posted, there will be four round trips Monday through Saturday, with two in the morning and two in the afternoon.
There is no Sunday service.
The first morning run to London is expected to leave around 7:20.
Howard notes, “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.
“Our goal is to make sure that we can get individuals on to transit and understand the importance of community transit and, also, there is the environmental factor as well.”
“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.”
The best news of all is the fare, $5 each way. Children under six, support persons and veterans ride at no cost.
“It’s a great price,” enthuses Howard. “Our goal is to make sure that we can get individuals on to transit and understand the importance of community transit and, also, there is the environmental factor as well.”
The buses will be branded as Middlesex County Connect.
We asked Howard about expanding the route, perhaps out to the Amazon Fulfillment Centre.
“We will start with this and see how we do and we’ll be having lots of conversations between the province, the City of London and St. Thomas to talk about how the route is going, do we need to expand it or change some of our route.
“We are really flexible around that. We’ve been able to do that with our other two routes. In fact, we actually made changes to those routes when we listened to the community and got feedback.
“It’s really up to the riders to tell us what routes work for them, what stops they like and which ones are successful.”
On the Middlesex County website Anum Maqsood, the Community Transportation Project Manager for Middlesex County observes, “Since its launch in 2020, the Middlesex County Connect service has been met with positive feedback, and ridership has steadily risen over time. We observed a significant 169% increase in ridership in 2023 alone.”
CREATING INSPIRATIONAL DESIGNS FOR THE RAILWAY LANDS
The railway lands to the west of the Elgin County Railway Museum which have been in the news of late are the subject of an urban design project undertaken by Fanshawe College students.
Doug Tarry Homes is proposing a residential development on the site and more than 90 students from Fanshawe’s GIS and Urban Planning diploma program presented 10 original urban design ideas for the railway lands.
The students were invited to “create inspirational designs, imagining a new environment, community and placemaking,” according to a release from the college.
The design competition or charrette included problem analysis and visualization of a new future for the vacant land.
Each of the student groups delivered a presentation in front of a panel of design professionals familiar with the site.
Three prizes were awarded and all of the presentations are eligible for submission to the Fanshawe College Environmental Design Competition to be held April 6 at the CASO station.
The competition, which is open to the public, will feature submissions from students at other colleges.
This week we spoke with William Pol, a professor in the GIS and Urban Planning School of Design at Fanshawe College about the event.
“What we’re trying to do is give our students a real-life situation where they might be in a planning office or working for a developer or consultant.”
“We’ve been working on design competitions for nine years and a few years ago, we looked at Port Stanley, the east beach.”
Another undertaking led by Fanshawe’s Russell Schnurr looked at urban design for the streetscapes along Talbot Street.
So, why the focus on the railway lands this year?
Pol explains, “We are partnering with Doug Tarry Homes, he is our sponsor, and it came about because of Prof. Shnurr, he is on the Municipal Heritage Committee (in St. Thomas) and the Elgin County Railway Museum and the city asked if we would look at this site for our design competition.
“This is an excellent project for students to think about urban design and redevelopment of lands in the core of a city.
“The student submissions are in response to his (Schnurr’s) interest in the lands and the interest of the railway museum to imagine what the buildings and surroundings could be used for and to support the museum.”
Pol adds, “It also ties in very closely with what staff at the City of St. Thomas planning department and Economic Development could imagine for these lands.”
“And then, at the crux of it, is the railway museum building and the lands just around the building. How could that site be re-imagined to make it an event space or a place where people want to go to on a regular basis.”
With the impact on the area of the Amazon Fulfillment Centre and the PowerCo EV battery plant, Pol notes, “all the interested groups, as well as the heritage committee, saw a real opportunity to imagine what this area could look like. That’s what we’re all about. This is inspiring designs for the site.
“What we’re trying to do is give our students a real-life situation where they might be in a planning office or working for a developer or consultant.
“And these are the kinds of problems they might have to deal with in reality. It prepares them for the working world.
“They have to work in groups, they have to figure out what they want to do, they have to do research and come up with imaginative ideas.
“And to that end, they have to research how to improve the contaminated lands. How to rehabilitate it.”
Pol continues, “They’re looking at how many housing units they could put on and what do they look like single detached townhouses or apartments.
“And then, at the crux of it, is the railway museum building and the lands just around the building. How could that site be re-imagined to make it an event space or a place where people want to go to on a regular basis.
“The CASO station has really done a remarkable job on that already. And now I think the museum and Doug Tarry Homes are looking to take that to the next step.”
As for the Environmental Design Competition, it runs from 8:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. in Anderson Hall at the CASO station.
The student presentations are from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., with guest speaker Walter Kehm, a landscape architect and lead adjudicator for the competition.
The event is open to the public and you can register by ordering a free ticket at https://buytickets.at/fanshaweschoolofdesign/1182366
TENDER AWARDED FOR MAJOR REBUILD OF HIGHBURY AVENUE
At Monday’s meeting, city council will be asked to approve the contract for widening Highbury Avenue to four lanes from Ron McNeil Line to South Edgware Road and extending the roadway south to Hwy. 3.
The lowest bidder was L82 Construction of London at just over $23 million. A sum of $25 million was budgeted for the project.
Work is expected to begin in April and be substantially completed in December.
Two lanes of traffic will be maintained during construction.
The work will include the installation of roundabouts at Ron McNeil Line, South Edgeware Road and the Hwy. 3 bypass.
Public art will be installed in the roundabouts at Ron McNeil and South Edgeware. You can read more about that here.
Traffic signals will be maintained at Dennis Road and new traffic signals will be installed at Edgeware Line.
The report to council notes, “the roundabout at Highway 3 is within Ministry of Transportation (MTO) jurisdiction. It has been agreed that the city will construct the roundabout as part of the Highbury project and MTO will operate it upon completion.”
The project requires utility relocations by Entegrus Hydro, Hydro One, Bell, Rogers and Start, all of which are currently underway. Five parcels of land were acquired to facilitate utility relocations.
A website has been set up where additional information as well as a video drive-through can be found and updates will be posted.
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KAINS STREET RECONSTRUCTION READY TO ROLL
The city is advising the Kains Street reconstruction project will begin on Monday (March 18).
The work will entail the construction of a roundabout at Kains and St. Catharine streets, bike lanes and active transportation, and protected pedestrian crossings, along with improvements to the water main, storm drainage, and sanitary sewers.
Parking lot paving and upgrades at the Scott Street Parking Lot and the Upper St. Catharine Parking Lot adjacent to the Stationview Child Care Centre are also included.
Conversion of Scott and Curtis streets to two-way traffic is to also begin on Monday.
According to the city, “The conversion is required to coincide with the Kains Street construction project to maintain local traffic access, allow for detouring of traffic for those affected by the road closures, and to allow for the necessary roadway alignment changes required at the Mondamin and Scott Street intersection.”
A website is in place that details the undertaking, it can be found here.
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