St. Thomas mayor seeks transit connection to London

St. Thomas Mayor Joe Preston wants to see a transit connection linking his city with London and plans to lobby the province this weekend for money to get the service started. 

"There's many more ways to get to Toronto than there is to London [from St. Thomas]," he said. "And we're only 10 or 15 minutes from each other and we need to correct that." 

The growth of St. Thomas, with its population of about 42,000, is adding to the urgency. So is the addition of two new major employers to the region. Maple Leaf Foods' new chicken processing plant at London's south end began operating in November, providing work for 1,600 employees. 

A new Amazon logistics centre is expected to open this year in nearby Talbotville on the site of the former Ford assembly plant.

Preston envisions a bus system, perhaps with hourly departures, running from downtown St. Thomas and connecting to the London Transit Commission's system in south London.

City of London crews are starting work this year on what will become the south leg of the bus rapid transit system, which will connect downtown London with transit hub near White Oaks Mall and a park-and-ride facility near Highway 401.

Preston would also like to see runs between St. Thomas and the neighbouring communities of Port Stanley and Aylmer.

But to start, Preston would like to focus on the London-to-St. Thomas connection which he said will need some provincial money to get going as a three-year pilot project until the ridership can be built. 

"If we can cover it with fares, then we won't need any provincial support. We're just looking for the backstop from the province for a pilot project," he said.

St. Thomas already operates Railway City Transit, a five-route system with both conventional transit and on-demand service. 

Ten years ago there was a transit service connecting the two cities and there have been plans to revive it, but the COVID-19 lockdowns disrupted the progress.

Now Preston wants to put it back on the front-burner. He spoke to London Mayor Josh Morgan about the transit connection at Morgan's state of the city speech on Tuesday.

He's travelling to Toronto this weekend to take part in the Rural Ontario Municipal Association (ROMA) conference where he plans to raise the issue there with Transportation Minister Caroline Mulroney.

"It's time to get this moving forward and we think asking the province to help is the best way to get it to happen," he said.