Some good news for transit riders in parts of Essex County.
Leamington council has approved an extension for the Leamington to Windsor (LTW) transit service.
The extension will last until the end of the year and will continue to provide service between Leamington and Windsor with stops in Kingsville and Essex.
The service was first launched in July 2019 and is operated by Transit Windsor.
It provides three round trips per day Monday to Friday, and two round trips on Saturdays.
Leamington's Director of Infrastructure Services Robert Sharon says the municipality wants to talk to the city about future extensions.
"We do plan to sitting down with Transit Windsor and going through what a longer term contract would look like, say a five year contract, been in contact with city administration and preparing this," says Sharon.
He says the city has already dealt with the extension.
"This contract extension has already been in front of city council in one form or another," he says. "They've approved it."
Councillor Bill Dunn says he appreciates the work administration has done to keep the service operating.
"This is near and dear to my heart," says Dunn. "I think it's something is well needed for our community and I know it's a lot of hard work keeping it up and running and doing all this hard work."
Councillor Paul Tiessen says he's glad to see the extension.
"Increases in ridership would come I think if people know they have a dedicated bus that will be there, right now it's too much in limbo to rely on something like this so why would you get a job in Windsor if you have to take the bus wondering whether or not, this thing is going to be running," says Tiessen.
According to a staff report, Leamington entered into an operating contract with Transit Windsor to provide the service in 2019 and renewed the contract for another 3 year term in 2022.
The report goes on to say "The LTW was enabled initially through an inter-community transit grant offered through the Province of Ontario. However, that funding expired on March 31, 2025. Through collaboration with the County of Essex, the Town of Kingsville and the Town of Essex, on February 5, 2025, Administration was able to secure temporary funding from the County of Essex for the service to December 31, 2025."
Leamington staff say the future of the service "remains in a precarious situation due to a lack of permanent funding commitment."
The County of Essex is expected to bring back a recommendation regarding establishing permanent funding for regional transit services like the LTW.
The report is expected this summer.
Leamington council has also approved an additional $20,000 from the Covid Recovery Reserve Fund to fund the expected cost increase for the service in 2025.