The proposal to cancel "School Extra" buses to make service enhancements at Transit Windsor is moving forward.
A motion to defer the plan in favour of further discussions with the local public and Catholic school boards was defeated. Councillors who voted in favour of deferral were Councillors Fred Francis, Angelo Marignani, Gary Kaschak and Kieran McKenzie.
Councillor Jo-Anne Gignac ultimately voted against the deferral because of current budget pressures.
"We can't enhance our transit system without cutting some of the services that have been operating in the past at full cost to all of our residents. Challenges are getting really tight and we're having to provide services that we have no business providing," said Gignac.
The school extra service costs around $403,470 to operate. Students are required to buy a bus pass when taking a school extra bus there is not a full cost recovery.
The savings from eliminating the school extra buses will go toward $1,396,428 of service enhancements recommended in the budget.
They include fixed transit routes in Southwood Lakes and Devonshire Heights and increased frequency on existing routes like the Dougall 6, South Windsor 7, Walkerville 8, Parent 14 and Route 115.
The plan includes an addition of around 15,000 service hours.
"When I look at routes going from 40 to 30 minutes, 70 to 45 minutes, 50 to 30 minutes and now all routes are going to be operating on a Sunday except for one. This benefits the entire system," said Councillor Fabio Costante.
The school bus extras will continue to operate for the remainder of 2024/2025 school year.