Moving on Up: Handing over the Stratford School Bus Service

This semester marks the end of WUSA’s Stratford School pilot bus service. Launched in fall 2023, through the collaboration of WUSA, the Global Business and Digital Arts (GBDA) society, the Stratford school and the Faculty of Arts, this service provides affordable, safe, and reliable transportation between UW’s main and Stratford campuses.    

Through feedback received from recent student research, WUSA recognized a gap in support for students’ needs and created the Stratford bus service to provide affordable and safe transportation to campus. Starting out in fall 2023 with one bus in the morning and one in the evening, the service has grown to offer more seating and multiple departure times to better fit the student schedule. This service has offered students a more affordable way to get to the Stratford campus, where prices could be as low as $2.75 a trip, compared to the average student spending $6.23 one way for a carpool.   

This service has provided many students with an easy way to travel between Waterloo and Stratford and has fulfilled a need that Stratford students struggled with for some time. For many students, the lack of affordable transportation was proving unsustainable, with many spending upwards of $100 a month on carpools or the Perth Connect. These students have seen many versions of bussing services through the school, but none have been as effective or accessible as the bus service WUSA provided.  

WUSA piloted the Waterloo-Stratford bus service with the goal of demonstrating the service’s value and potential to the University. After a year of operation, WUSA is pleased to announce that it is being taken over by the University and will be made a permanent service. With this change, the ticketing for the Stratford bus will look a little different. Come Fall 2024, students can visit the link here to find updated ticketing info.  

We are excited to see that this pilot was able to prove the value of this service and that students will continue to have access to safe reliable transportation to school.  

Emmalee Waite & Mayra Garduno Montero
Communications Coordinator Co-ops