Busses or Bust?

Every teenager, myself included, has wanted to just get away from it all at one time or another. Unfortunately for us, the only way out was owning our own car. And when you’re 17 the insurance rates go through the roof. Luckily an opportunity has presented itself: the new bus line.

Busses are great all by themselves: they are more fuel efficient than carpooling and can carry many more people. They also allow people without cars to travel far distances and can connect cities together. Elmira’s new bus line is currently in the second year of a two year trial phase. If ridership continues to climb, it will likely be made permanent.

The busses are pretty standard. They are wheelchair and baby buggy accessible and have bike racks on the front for in case you want to go exploring. They have plenty of seating and come every half hour.

Once you pay the fair of $2.50, or bought tickets in advance, you will be given a transfer which you can use to continue your bus journey to many parts of the K.W. area. Transfers are good for an hour and a half after you get them, and seeing as the Elmira bus goes to the mall this means you can get an hour of shopping in for just one ticket!
The bus drivers are helpful and will gladly tell you which bus you need to take to get somewhere and maps are available so you can plan your own routes.

The main problem with the Elmira busses is that they don’t run all day. The final bus from the mall is at 7:23 pm. When school ends at about 3:00, and it takes half an hour to travel there, it means that there are only four hours you can spend before you need to be back on the bus coming home. If you wanted to get a job in the mall there wouldn’t be much time to work at it, unless you could get someone to pick up after you’re done.

I give Grand River Transit 3.5 stars (out of five) and a ‘B’ for Effort.