Better late than never? People in the Blackstone neighbourhood will get a long-awaited shuttle bus starting in September 2015.
We originally reported on this back in February, when transit officials told StittsvilleCentral.ca that the shuttle service would begin by June. Currently residents have to walk nearly two kilometres to reach the nearest OC Transpo bus stop.
Shad Qadri provided this update in his email newsletter this week:
Transit service will first be introduced in September 2015 as a joint undertaking by Monarch, Regional and Cardel, the developers of the Blackstone and Fernbank Crossing communities.
This service will operate Monday to Friday during peak periods as a shuttle from Blackstone/Fernbank Crossing to Terry Fox Station during the morning and from Terry Fox Station to Blackstone/Fernbank Crossing during the afternoon. At Terry Fox Station customers can connect to regular fare OC Transpo Routes 92 and 96 travelling to downtown. Operating the shuttle to Terry Fox Station allows the shuttle to operate frequently and reliably with one vehicle by minimizing trip times and facilitating an easy turn- around to make a return trip to Blackstone/Fernbank Crossing.
The details of the transit shuttle routing, start date, hours of operation and frequency will be provided by Monarch/Regional/Cardel once they have finalized their plans with a service provider. The service will operate from 6:00am to 9:00am and from 4:00pm to 7:00pm Monday to Friday with one trip every 30 minutes in the peak direction. The map gives an idea of the anticipated shuttle routing for reference only, to be confirmed by Monarch/Regional/Cardel.
In future years when the collector road network in the Blackstone and Fernbank Crossing community is available for transit operation and there is sufficient number of residences to meet our minimum service thresholds, OC Transpo will operate bus service through the communities to replace the developer’s shuttle service.