RJ RILEY
SPORTS EDITOR

For the past three years, my trek to school using Brampton Transit has been unnecessarily long.
Every day my ride kicks off at 7 a.m. with a 10-minute wait at Trinity Common Mall for the No. 5 bus to leave.
Once we’ve left the mall, it takes 45 minutes, though the Brampton Transit schedule says it should take 35, to connect with the infamously busy Route 11 at Goreway Road and Steeles Avenue.  The wait to transfer to the No. 11 bus is 15 minutes and when the bus does show, it is full.
The standing-room only tour winds its way through the Kenview Road industrial area, then takes Finch Avenue West, (away from Humber College) before returning to Steeles Avenue.
The driver waits five minutes at the Humberline Avenue and Albion Road intersection for more people to cram into the already over-stuffed bus.
Finally, the bus leaves to make a left on to Finch Avenue, this time heading east.  It is now possible to catch a whiff of that burnt toast smell that covers the area around Humber College’s North Campus.
It happens once you smell that smell.
The bus passes the campus.
It trundles along Humber College Boulevard and goes out of the way heading south on Highway 27 and circling back to Humber, like a mouse in a maze.
It is clear the route needs to change.
Brampton transit riders need a bus that goes directly to Humber College without circling it first. They need an express bus that skips the industrial tour.
The City of Brampton accepts rider suggestions via email at transit@brampton.ca and I sent a suggestion proposing just that.
But so far, Brampton has decided to go a different route. It’s called Züm.
According to Brampton Transit’s website Züm is a “City of Brampton initiative that will introduce Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) services along the City’s key north-south and east-west corridors.”
This means Brampton Transit plans to add express buses that only stop at major intersections along key routes.
The 11 is one of them.
Great! The only stipulations? The BRT bus will follow the same route and it will not take effect on the 11 routes until 2012. And that’s far too long.
Change is needed now, not two years from now.
I encourage you to contact Brampton Transit with your suggestions.
Maybe we can make the powers that be at Brampton Transit move faster than their buses do now.