Hoile bus loop meeting cancelled

DURHAM -- The fate of the Hoile loop on the 222 Audley Road South bus route will be up in the air another month because the committee meeting set to deal with the issue has been cancelled.

At the meeting, south Ajax residents were set to hash out whether the Hoile loop, which runs south of Ashbury Boulevard, should be cut from the 222 Audley Road South bus route.

Up to 30 residents on both sides of the issue were set to address the Transit Executive Committee on Sept. 3 as members of four delegations. As well, the committee was to deal with about 40 pieces of correspondence on the issue.

The meeting was cancelled Tuesday afternoon due to lack of quorum, which means not enough committee members would attend to meet minimum voting requirements. Five of the nine committee members have to attend for a quorum and Mayor Marilyn Pearce of Scugog, Councillor Nester Pidwerbecki of Oshawa, Mayor Bob Shepherd of Uxbridge, Coun. Charlie Trim of Clarington and Regional Chairman Roger Anderson all sent their regrets. The next meeting will be on Oct. 15 at 1:30 p.m.

A report on the route from Durham Region Transit (DRT) staff recommended leaving the loop as is. DRT conducted a survey about the issue and of the 78 affected households that responded to the survey, half said they were opposed to the route change.

Of the 13 households responding to the survey who would be outside of the DRT’s 400-metre service standard if the bus was re-routed, seven were in favour of cutting the loop, five were opposed and one did not take a position either way.