GSA/HSR Referendum:

Every three years the GSA enters renegotiations with the City for a new contract for the upcoming three years. The below represents the four questions the GSA will be bringing to students via referenda. The current rate of the HSR bus pass is $294.15. Voting NO to this referendum means Graduate Students are voting to not accept the agreement and not have a pass for Fall next year.

VOTING TAKE PLACE: February 13th 10:00am- February 15th- 6:00pm. All eligible voters will receive an email with voting details before the election (please check your McMaster emails)!

1. Full time students (Fall)  

Do you agree to an increase in the FT graduate student Bus Pass mandatory student fee, for the following three years $302.35 in 2023/2024, $307.95 in 2024/2025, and $313.54 in 2025/2026. 

       2. Full time students (Winter) 

 Do you agree to reducing the FT graduate student Bus Pass for January starts; whereas, historically they were charged 100% of the cost of the FT fall (September fee). Though Access was for 8 months. This would result in a cost to students of 66.66% FT fall fee, a decrease of 33.34 % of the FT fee? 

 For example, the FT fall Buss Pass is $302.35 in 2023/2024 then FT winter students (January starts) will be charged a prorated fee of $201.57 for January 2024. (2/3 of the FT fall UCTP fee) 

       3. Full time students (Summer) 

Do you agree to the establishment of a mandatory student fee of 33.34% the cost of the FT Fall Bus Pass for FT graduate students starting in May? Historically, this group did not have access to any Buss Pass.  For example, the FT fall bus pass is $302.35 in 2023/2024 then FT Summer  students (May starts) will be charged $100.78 for May 2024. (1/3 of the FT fall UCTP fee) 

       4. Co-op students 

 Do you agree FT Co-op students at the respective rate (depending on start), with an ability to  opt-out for those students on co-op outside of the city of Hamilton?  Prorated fee for the remainder of the year the student is at McMaster University. 

VOTING NO- means that Graduate Students will not have access to the UPASS (HSR) pass (and the discounted rates herein).

Any questions or concerns should be brought to the attention of Macgsa@mcmaster.ca

Please find the report here.

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.

CLOSED Friday, December 23^rd  2022

REOPENING Monday, January 9^th 2023