Brampton Transit will restore service ‘as soon as possible’ after route cuts start on Monday: Mayor

Mayor Patrick Brown said staff are working to get Brampton Transit back to normal “as soon as possible” when route cancelations and changes on Monday.

The city announced dozens of cuts and service changes to transit routes across Brampton starting on Jan. 17 due to staffing shortages and reduced ridership.

Some 20 routes will be temporarily shutting down until further notice, with others remaining in service with frequency cuts or running at reduced hours.

“I don’t like it when there’s one route cancelled,” Brown said in an interview with insauga.com on Friday.

“We’ve had a lot of transit operators fall sick with omicron and we’re hopeful we’re going to get back on our feet quickly,” Brown said, calling transit workers “unsung pandemic heroes” on the frontlines of the latest Omicron surge.

Brampton has been hit hard in recent weeks by what Brown called “acute staffing shortages.”

The Peel Memorial Centre urgent care centre was temporarily closed by William Osler Health System until February due to increasing patient volumes in emergency departments just days after the Peel Paramedic Union said EMS was running at Code Black.

Other services like waste collection in Brampton and Mississauga have also seen service disruptions with bulky garbage pickup in Peel now suspended due to COVID-19 staffing pressures.

Brown said police, fire and emergency services have all been impacted by the latest wave in the pandemic, but Brampton has been able “to hold the fort on city services despite challenges.”

The city said it will monitor resource needs and ridership in the hope of restoring services to original frequency as soon as it can.

You can find a list of all the impacted Brampton Transit routes here, and further service updates will be released vis Brampton Transit’s Twitter and the Brampton Transit website.