The future of Waterloo region’s transit system opened its doors to the public Saturday with a brand new maintenance facility on Northfield Drive in Waterloo.
The Grand River Transit (GRT) facility has over 300,000 square feet, which includes a garage that is capable of storing 200 buses, along with repair bays, service lanes and washing stations.
“I’ve been around the industry for years. This is something that’s just unbelievable. It’s very good,” said Bob Lindloff, a tour participant.
GRT hosted 11 public tours on Saturday after opening the Northfield location earlier this month.
“It just allows us to efficiently deploy our fleet to all parts of the region,” said Neil Malcolm, acting director of transit services at GRT.
After a volatile couple of years, GRT is seeing ridership bounce back to pre-pandemic levels. September figures show demand is on the rise.
“We’re seeing ridership that is more than 90% of the ridership we had in September of 2019,” said Malcolm. “All signs right now are pointing towards getting back to 100%.”
The Northfield facility will house 11 fully electric buses, some of which are expected to hit the road by next year.
“We are currently procuring charging infrastructure to go to the Northfield garage so we can charge those buses,” added Malcolm.
It is welcome news for local riders who are hoping for a greener alternative to diesel.
Malcolm says GRT is waiting on council approval to order articulated buses in 2023 which are 20 feet longer than typical buses. He says the longer buses would help limit backlogs on the busiest routes to move more people in Waterloo region.
