after nearly a century, end of road for windsor-detroit tunnel bus after council vote
a majority of windsor city councillors voted at a speci...
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a transit windsor tunnel bus heads out of the downtown terminal on friday, feb. 21, 2025, the same day as city council voted to end the international service later this year after nearly a century.
dan janisse
/
windsor star
a majority of windsor city councillors voted at a special meeting friday to keep the windsor-detroit tunnel bus rolling — but it wasn’t enough to save the historic service.
council voted 6-5 to override mayor drew dilkens’ veto of a previous council decision to save the bus. but under ontario’s strong mayor legislation, tunnel bus proponents needed an 8-3 vote to defeat a mayoral veto.
“i urge council not to quit,” said ward 3 coun. renaldo agostino, who introduced the motion to override the mayor’s earlier veto.
“i urge council to try and do what’s hard, which means try. let’s not make this about donald trump and what he’s trying to do. if this is truly about the deal, then let’s get everybody back in the room. let’s lock the doors and let’s figure this out.
“this is clearly a service that people in our city want. it’s our duty to try and figure this out.”
there has been a public transit bus running between windsor and detroit since the international tunnel opened in 1930. dilkens said its end won’t happen overnight. winding it down could take six months.
the mayor also said that the city of detroit has shown interest in possibly taking over the service. detroit officials have asked for details about the tunnel bus to evaluate the operation.
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“what they do is up to them, but just because we stopped delivering the tunnel bus service doesn’t mean the title ‘bus service’ is going to go away,” dilkens told the star earlier this week.
detroit officials did not respond to the star’s requests for comment this week.
councillors fred francis (ward 1), fabio costante (w2), angelo marignani (w7), gary kaschak (w8), kieran mckenzie (w9), and agostino, who represents downtown on city council, voted to save the bus.
dilkens, mark mckenzie (w3), ed sleiman (w5), jo-anne gignac (w6), as well as jim morrison (w10) — who reversed his previous position in support of the bus — voted against agostino’s motion.
“at the time of the budget, i kind of got a little soft and kind of sentimental. it’s nostalgic. i’d hate to see it go,” said morrison.
“i still would hate to see it go. but we have to make good business decisions. i feel like i walked out of that budget and really started to second-guess myself and say, ‘i’m not sure i was making a good decision on behalf of the taxpayers of this city.’”
the tunnel bus’s long demise began in 2022 with a change to canada’s labour code. it granted federally regulated employees 10 days of paid medical leave per year on top of existing benefits. while only some transit windsor operators cross the border with the tunnel bus, all of the organization’s roughly 300 employees were now fell under federal labour laws.
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citing those 10 sick days, dilkens tabled a proposed budget in january that included elimination of the subsidized tunnel service as a cost-saving measure.
he said the 10 extra sick days means the tunnel bus, which previously broke even, now costs the city $1.6 million a year.
city council voted 7-4 against dilkens’ budget proposal to kill the tunnel bus. they also agreed to double the fare to $20 per trip to help increase revenue. the mayor immediately suggested he would veto that decision.
after u.s. president donald trump signed an executive order for his first round of tariff threats against canada, dilkens wielded his first-ever veto under ontario’s strong mayor legislation to override a council majority decision.
the mayor said he couldn’t justify subsidizing a service to detroit when canada is under “economic attack” from the u.s. he reiterated that position on friday, stating trump’s tariffs were “the tipping point” in his decision.
“we are acting and subsidizing this service to act as an economic engine for the city of detroit, the state of michigan, the united states as a whole,” said dilkens. “i can’t get over that in my mind, that i want to participate in that, especially at this time, with a business case that makes no sense.”
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ward 6’s gignac said stopping the bus is a tough decision, but it makes economic sense. she said council has made tough decisions before, cutting “equally treasured” services to save taxpayer money.
“this isn’t an easy job,” said gignac. “and if you’ve come to make friends or you’ve come to be hugged as you walk down the street, you have come to the wrong place.”
but ward 9’s kieran mckenzie, who seconded agostino’s motion, said killing the bus will be a “direct threat” to the livelihoods of windsorites who work in detroit. he said it will also cut people off from family and friends in the u.s.
generations have grown up taking the bus to detroit, “a city that feels less like a foreign place and more like an extension of home,” said mckenzie.
“it’s fostered cross-border relationships that have stood the test of time, generations of time,” he said. “let’s not forget the historical and cultural bonds between windsor and detroit.
“ours is a relationship built on shared industries, joint celebrations and mutual support. the tunnel bus embodies this connection, a rolling reminder that, while we may be separated by a river, we’re united in spirit.”
union representative manny sforza told the star following council’s vote that he was “extremely disappointed,” especially given the city will not save any money in the short term.
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even after the tunnel bus stops rolling, he said the current collective agreement dictates that union members will be eligible for the 10 sick days for the rest of the calendar year.
“cancelling it in three months or six months makes no sense,” said sforza, vice-president of amalgamated transit union local 616. “the mayor has greatly exaggerated the cost savings of canceling the tunnel bus.”
he also argued that the sick days are not really costing the city $1.6 million because the union made concessions to help pay for them, including changes to other benefits and giving up a “significant amount of paid union time.”
“we had hoped that once the councillors became aware of all of the facts in this case, they would have voted to support continuing this historic service,” said sforza.
“this is a sad day for transit in windsor. it’s a historic service that has come to an end, and it is a very sad day.”
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