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GRT hosts grand opening for new transit facility

The site will store and maintain up to 200 buses
Brent Cater

A grand opening event marked the completion of the Grand River Transit's new maintenance facility located at 300 Northfield Drive. 

After years of expanding service and growing ridership, GRT has outgrown two other maintenance and storage facilities in Kitchener and Cambridge.

The site will store and maintain up to 200 buses, including the service's first electric buses, which are set to arrive next spring. 

The 305,000-square-foot facility can house larger capacity, articulated buses, which will help GRT as it continues to expand service frequency and services into new areas and communities within the region, said a press release.

The ceremony heard speeches from a number of local officials, including Regional Chair Karen Redman.

"This maintenance facility will allow us to repair and keep in good working order, electric buses and articulated buses. Basically meaning, more people being moved in a more environmentally friendly way," she said.

Others who spoke at the event included Waterloo MP Bardish Chagger and Kitchener-Conestoga MPP Mike Harris, who explained why he attended the event to support the opening of the facility. 

"We live in one of the fastest growing regions in Canada. As more people are looking for options for housing and moving here to the region, a lot of those people want a good, robust public transit system in place, and this will help build on that," he said.  

The ceremony was opened by Neil Malcolm, the acting director of transit services for Waterloo Region, who explained what else can be expected from the facility.

"This garage has two things we didn't have in the past, we can now buy and use articulated buses, so 60 foot buses instead of 40 foot buses and we're also launching our electric bus pilot so this garage at Northfield will have charging facilities," he said. 

Malcolm added, the region has approved 11 electric buses for the GRT's electric bus pilot, which is expected to begin in the spring of 2023. 

During the event, it was noted that the facility was built with a variety of green features in mind, including rain water capture and storage for bus washing.

There's also 6,750 square feet of vegetative green roof and future allowance for the installation of solar panels. 

While yesterday's event marked the completion of the facilities construction, it's expected that buses will start deploying from the new facility by the fall.