By Anne Finlay-Stewart

The inaugural day of the 2014 Owen Sound city council may be the last day for the city's public bus terminal.

If the routes proposed by transit consultant Steer Davies Gleave (SDG) to "help balance running times and improve schedule reliability" are approved by council at its special meeting Thursday, July 24, a new common transfer point will be required on 3rd Avenue East, between 8th and 9th Street.

City staff have prepared a timeline to have the new bus pull-in and shelter operational to begin the new routes by December 1 this year. If those plans are approved and met, the downtown bus terminal will be empty and locked for the second time in the past year.

Aboutown Northlink ended its London-Owen Sound service in November 2013, citing the city's announcement that it was closing the downtown terminal as "the last straw" in an increasingly unworkable business plan. The single daily Greyhound bus between Barrie and Owen Sound is already using the 9th Ave. E. UPI station as its terminal.

City sources say there are "interested parties" waiting for the existing bus terminal to be declared surplus to make their reputedly modest offer on the property. A public meeting must be held before the building can be declared surplus, and a motion of council will determine whether all the substantial paved area surrounding the building will be included.

Anne Finlay-Stewart is Community Editor of Owensoundhub.org. She can be reached at annekfs@gmail.com.