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New facility can house Oakville's current and future bus fleetBy Nathan Howesthe last five years.OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFFOne of the things we havent been able to dois introduce services during peak service hoursIt was two years in the making, but Oakvillewhen we have our fleets maximized because weTransit has finally arrived at its new stop.just dont have enough buses, said Cole. GoingIts new 265,000 square foot, $45 millionforward, we will be attempting to introduce dur-facility was officially unveiled on Tuesday at itsing our budget process, service improvements,new location at 430 Wyecroft Rd. The buildinggreater frequency (and) new routes.merges all of Oakvilles transit services underCole said additional storage for buses meansone roof, including the towns fleet of 90 buses. the facility will have plenty of benefits to riders,This facility is literally a dream come true. Itespecially in the winter.is a portal to a greener transit system to meetThe fact that we can now store all of ourour towns personal mobility needs, said Mayorfleet inside in the winter means the buses startERIC RIEHL / OAKVILLE BEAVER Rob Burton. Council and I are proud thatout warm; the buses are more able to enter ser-CEREMONIAL CUT:On hand for the official ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Town of Oakville has the financial strength to be equalvice at their scheduled times as opposed to hav-Oakville's new $45-million transit facility were (l-r) Oakville MP Terence Young, Oakville MPP Kevinpartners with the provincial and federal govern-ing thaw them out in the back of the yard, saidFlynn and Oakville Mayor Rob Burton.ments in the funding of this building.Cole. The buses are cleaner, because in theThe cost of the building was split evenlymiddle of the winter we can wash them andWe had no room (left) and there was no vice design in September of 2009 and that was a between the federal, provincial and municipalstore them inside where they wont freeze.room for further expansion. We still have about turning point in transit here, said Cole. As a governments. At the old facility, more than half of our fleetone-third of the towns geographic size that result, weve gone up every month, year after Infrastructure Canada has now committedwas stored outside on extremely cold days (and)hasnt even been built yet, so transit has to year since then. over $10.6 billion towards approximately 6,400you couldnt have washed the fleet simplyexpand and in order to do that we need a larger Ridership has gone up 13 per cent in the first infrastructure projects as part of Canadasbecause it would freeze while it was beingfacility, said Cole.half of 2011, compared to the first half of 2009 Economic Action Plan, said Oakville MPstored, he added.We have room that weve left on the west when Oakville had the old service design, accord-Terence Young. The facility is expected to be easier on theside of the building and at the south end for ing to Burton.First announced in June 2009, the move to amaintenance, so tenvironment. Some of the new features builthat we can expand out further In May of this year, Oakville Transit provided new facility was designed to improve transitinto the site include geothermal heating andfor 50 spots, he added.235,000 rides. That is better than a 16 per cent services while adding more space to accommo-Wcooling, permeable pavement, Energy Starith the growth in transit services and an increase over May of last year, said Burton. date the number of buses, said Barry Cole, direc-appliances and building materials with recycledannual ridership of 2.5 million people, Cole said Oakville is currently approaching 30 bus tor of transit services.content, among others. he expects the town to reach its maximum routes, with plans for a new route to be intro-Oakville Transit can now store up to 175Now that we can expand our fleet and ser-capacity in the next 10 to 15 years.duced in the Claremont area in September, buses at the new location, with room to expand,vices, we expect to be over 3 million rides, if notOakville Transit was pretty much flat lined according to Cole. Since September 2009, $1.5 whereas the previous building could only storeby the end of this year, certainly by the end of at about 2.4 million people over a period of million has been spent on additional transit up to 42.2012, said Cole.about four years, but we introduced a new ser-service and nine new routes have been added in Thurs 10-8 Fri 10-8FACTORY DIRECTSat 10-5 Sun 12-4thHeld Over Until Monday, July 4OVER 100 AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DELIVERYHOT TUBS PATIO FURNITURE SWIMMING POOLS$$18R 1595 24R 1795$CAST ALUMINUM4 PERSON 2495$12x24 OVAL 2195$AND WICKER SETS6 PERSON 2995$15x30 OVAL 2495MANY MORE TO CHOOSE FROM!UP TO 75% OFFMANY MORE SIZES AVAILABLE!***NO REASONABLE OFFER REFUSED***ONE OF A KIND *SCRATCH AND DENTS* NEW IN A BOX, ALL PRICED TO CLEAR504 IROQUOIS SHORE ROAD, UNIT #1OAKVILLE, ONTARIO L6H 3K4252www.leisureindustries.ca*Limited Time Offer, No Dealers Please, Quantities Limited.FACTORY DIRECT7 Thursday, June 30, 2011 OAKVILLE BEAVER www.insideHALTON.com