Passengers are waiting longer for London Transit buses to arrive, and routes are taking more time to travel. Significant challenges with schedule adherence have London Transit officials asking bus riders to have patience as the service faces a confluence of challenges beyond its control. “It's nowhere near where we would like it to be,” admitted London Transit General Manager Kelly Paleczny. “I can assure you we're certainly doing everything we can to make improvements.” A heatmap prepared by London Transit shows that late arrivals in mid-September were worst in Downtown London, around Western University, and at Argyle Mall. Paleczny explained that slower travel times are the result of road construction, traffic congestion, and the labour strike at Western University preventing the use of bus stops on campus, as London Transit does not cross picket lines. She added that new buses intended to be on the road in September still haven’t arrived from the manufacturer, and a shortage of mechanics to service additional ‘tripper buses’ means less ability to mitigate detours and crowding. “We've got a reduced manpower pool maintaining busses that we had hoped to retire [from the road] six months ago,” she explained. “So, it [has] a compounding effect. Having said all that, I will say that our Fleet and Facilities Department has done a phenomenal job.” The road construction project having the greatest impact is the construction of three Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. Although, once completed, the bus-only BRT lanes connecting the south, east, and central parts of the city should improve schedule adherence. Passengers say the delays have become unavoidable. “I’ve experienced a lot of delays. Every time we take the bus we don't know when it's going to come,” said David Cyr as he waited outside Argyle Mall. Paleczny said there has been some improvement since early September and she suggests passengers use the most reliable arrival time and detour information available on their website. “We'll probably have really good schedule adherence in January and February when most of those construction projects are wrapped up and we're back to traveling on our normal routing,” predicted Paleczny.
