Many regions across Canada are now integrating multiple transit systems under one regional authority. This trend is driven by the desire to provide more seamless, consistent, affordable and better planned transit services for customers, and to achieve operational and cost efficiencies between different municipalities (and in some cases private agencies). Other benefits include the opportunity to extend services to where they may not be currently available, to gain operational efficiency, to encourage more people to use public transit, and to attract additional senior government funding. This report summarizes three case studies in Ontario and Alberta – Niagara Region, Ontario and Bow Valley Region and Calgary Region, Alberta – where there has been a focus on building regional transit systems. The report covers several stages of implementing a regional transit authority, beginning with identifying local and regional needs. It then describes some of common regional governance models and the criteria used to evaluate them, and then how a phasing strategy, roles and responsibilities, and funding strategy can be developed and determined. Lastly, the report summarizes some of the unique opportunities and challenges that have been faced in each of these case studies, and how they were addressed. The purpose of the report is to provide some insight and guidance to other municipalities, regions, and consulting companies who may be working on similar initiatives, and to highlight some of the key lessons that have been learned.
