Cornwall Transit Acquires Three New Buses

The Cornwall Transit bus fleet has been enhanced with the arrival of three new accessible buses.

PHOTO CREDIT - City of Cornwall

Cornwall - Sep. 30, 2011 - The Cornwall Transit bus fleet has been enhanced with the arrival of three new accessible buses.

The new acquisitions consist of two low-floor buses that will be used primarily on Community Service routes and a high-floor bus that will be used mainly for Handi-Transit service. The new buses are interchangeable on Community Service and Handi-Transit, and they will replace three older Handi-Transit buses in the fleet.

"These new buses will help us maintain an accessible transportation service for persons with disabilities in the community," said Len Tapp, Division Manager, Transit.

The two Arboc Mobility low-floor buses seat up to 16 passengers and are equipped with a number of features including digital signs, four wheelchair positions and perimeter seating.

The high-floor Crestline bus can seat up to 10 ambulatory passengers and it is equipped with a hydraulic ramp and four wheelchair positions.

The $474,103 cost of the new buses was covered through the Ontario Bus Replacement Program and Provincial Transit Gas Tax funding that the City receives on an annual basis.

The buses were purchased through a joint procurement process by Metrolinx, a governmental agency. The joint procurement process involved the purchase of 27 new Handi-Transit buses for 11 separate municipalities.

"The savings realized by this joint procurement process allowed us to invest additional gas tax funding into other initiatives," said Mr. Tapp.

Cornwall Transit operates 6 conventional bus routes, 2 Community Service routes and 36 daily hours of Handi-Transit service, along with morning and evening service to the Cornwall Business Park. There are more than 240 Cornwall Transit bus stops located throughout the City, allowing citizens to travel to most locations around Cornwall within 30 minutes.

Cornwall Transit handled 738,000 paid trips in 2010, including 36,000 trips made by persons with disabilities.

The Community Service offers scheduled service from Monday to Saturday on an hourly basis to numerous points of interest such as shopping centres and medical clinics. The service is geared to seniors and persons with disabilities.

Handi-Transit is a parallel service for persons with disabilities and operates on the same hours as the Conventional bus service. It is a "demand and response" system with accessible door to accessible door assistance provided.