WELLINGTON COUNTY — Making Ride Well a permanent service might not cost taxpayers as much as initially believed.
Presenting several future options for Ride Well at an Economic Development Committee meeting Tuesday morning, consultant Dillon Kar has recommended the County of Wellington continue the ride-sharing program's current service model in the short term while expanding accessibility to meet AODA standards once the program's pilot phase ends in March 2025.
Approved by the committee to be implemented in April 2025, Kar said this option will allow the county to "improve accessibility" without changing the passenger service model or how the program is currently managed.
It would also allow the county to contract a new transit service provider able to provide accessible and inter-zonal trips as the current service being used "has been finding it difficult to maintain a driver for all hours of the service day" which has reduced service availability for riders needing accessible services.
While this option was originally anticipated to cost $685,230 in 2025 with $306,438 to be funded by taxpayers, Kar said the county is now set to receive $850,000 in gas tax funding which "paints a positive picture" of Ride Well's future and will reduce the proposed costs by "a minimum" of $100,000 annually.
Current financial estimates accommodate annual gas tax funding of $50,000 and would have a net cost of $7.71 per household.
The county currently spends $445,000 on Ride Well annually- funded by a CT grant and municipal contributions.
Staff said Ride Well must be designated a permanent service to access the funding.
Warden Andy Lennox called the additional funding "a complete game changer," as the potential future costs weighed heavily on his support for the process.
"I don't know how we can walk away from this," said Lennox. "I think it's too valuable to the residents to walk away from it for that amount of money."
In the medium term, staff are recommending the county maintain the existing service and add a fixed route, which is anticipated to cost $472,286 in 2025, not including the gas tax funding. The fixed route is intended to replace and expand on the GOST service and support connectivity to Guelph Transit and Metrolinx service.
"The fixed-route has the capacity to handle significantly more ridership than (the current demand between Centre Wellington and Guelph) and is expected to experience some additional ridership from population growth and the attractiveness of this type of service," said staff in the report.
Future Ride Well discussions will continue during operating budget deliberations in January 2025.
Isabel Buckmaster is the Local Journalism Initiative reporter for GuelphToday. LJI is a federally-funded program.
