Thank you for partaking in the HSR Graduate Student Survey. By participating in this small-scale survey, you have aided the GSA in gathering important feedback for what could be improved with the bus service in the City of Hamilton. This information will be relayed during negotiation meetings to improve user experience of the service. We are aware and apologize for not tailoring the survey to those who do not take public transportation, however based on responses from non-bus users, we have been able to omit those votes in overall calculations to not bias the results.

The participation of students in this survey has helped us find important negotiation points for the upcoming 2023-2026 HSR- GSA contract. If you have any further feedback or concerns, please feel free to reach out to the GSA office.

Key point:

• We received 129 responses to our HSR survey.
• Out of all participants, 71% of respondents were Ph.D. students and 29% Master students.
• 80% of respondents use public transportation as their main mode of transport in Hamilton.
• 88% of participants have redeemed their HSR bus pass, and 81% of those using the bus pass make use of the service on a daily and weekly basis.
• The most frequented routes taken by 36% of participants is from Central Hamilton to the University, followed by 17% of students travelling from East Hamilton and 17% of participants travelling from Westdale.
• The buses are mostly on time based on 68% participants.
• Out of the survey participants 86% of students were satisfied or more than satisfied with the HSR service.

Feedback:

1. More punctuality with the service is essential. Buses mostly arriving early which leaves students waiting for the next bus in cold temperatures.
2. Weekend schedule is too infrequent.
3. More bus frequency required at night.
4. More double buses required as the buses are very busy in rush hour to and from the university
5. Direct buses from further distances to the university should be created with minimal stops to reduce travel time.
6. Announcing prolonged stops by the drivers to the passengers
7. More accessibility from the Mountain.
8. More accessibility to Binbrook/Waterdown from Hamilton.
9. Buses are coming at the same schedule, would be better to be more spaced out between lines stopping at the same stops
10. The city should have more route 5 buses.
11. Increase the yearly pass by one week, in order to have the service available after the summer.
12. More route 10 (Line B) services on Sundays, as buses are very busy.
13. Dirty buses need to be addressed.
14. Masks on buses should be reintroduced for safety.
15. Car users would like to have an opt out option to not pay for the service they do not use.