Steven Sanders and his wife came to Windsor from Detroit to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary, grateful for the Linq Tunnel Bus. “Extremely grateful because it’s much easier. No problem and we get to our point A to point B,” Sanders. It was a good day to return home as well. Rides were free. The Linq Tunnel Bus celebrated one year in business and wanted to thank riders from both sides on the border. “There was a gap in the transportation system and the Linq stepped up to help the community and provide a service for people that need to get back and forth and so you know so far it’s been good,” said company spokesperson Sarb Sehmbi. But now, he is concerned as the service is becoming an election issue. “We want to bring the tunnel bus back,” said mayoral candidate and former Ward 1 councillor Fred Francis. He was one of seven councillors who voted against idling the tunnel bus service in January 2025. “With innovation, ingenuity, different routes, route reviews, and ensuring that it’s profitable, then the city can make it a profitable endeavour where we can make up that $2 million dollars.” Using strong mayor powers, Mayor Drew Dilkens vetoed council’s decision, which led to the eventual dissolution of the service. “The service of the tunnel bus was almost exclusively bringing Windsorites over to Detroit to spend their money. What we have today is a situation where we’ve saved taxpayers $2.5 million in annual expenses,” he said. Dilkens says the private operator is charging less than the approved rate council would have charged to keep the service going. Bringing it back, he says, would be a tax burden and force the Linq to terminate employment for over a dozen people. Mayoral candidate Kat Pasquach feels poor ridership after the pandemic was the excuse used to cut the service. Pasquach wants to bring back the service. She says improvements need to be made and feels capitalizing on advertising opportunities would help offset the taxpayer burden of annual expenses. “Let’s stop framing public service as a burden. These are the things that we want to pay taxes into in our community. This is why we have taxes. It’s for public services so stop framing these things is such a negative light,” she said. For now, the tunnel bus is a private venture with an office at the corner of Bruce and Riverside. The company has invested over $1 million into the business. They’ve created infrastructure. They have contracts, 13 employees, and looking at expanding their service and their fleet heading into year two. “Absolutely, our hope is that we’re here to stay.” CTV reached out to all mayoral candidates. Here are some of the responses: Patrick Sutherland: “The Linq Tunnel Bus came in to provide a service where our city right out failed us. I suggested earlier in the week that the city would forward a grant to Linq and form a partnership to increase their service and also allow for the special events buses to sporting events/concerts.” Nick Kolasky: “The Tunnel Bus was dropped because it was losing money. The Linq has replaced it and to my knowledge does not cost the city any money. I see no reason to attempt to bring back the city run tunnel bus.” Tristan Morencie: “Windsor and Detroit share history together. The tunnel buses are very important representing both of our communities. My vision is to negotiate with Detroit mayor Mary Sheffield. I’d say keep the Linq unless those tunnel buses bring more money.” Louis Vaupotic: “My proposed gondola, vertiport, and ferry is the future, either one or all of those components will replace Linq bus.” Dylon Graves: “If we’re going to have any chance of reviving the public tunnel bus it will have to be this election, maybe next election, but after that I can’t see a nearly 10-year-old service becoming an electoral lightning rod. If you’re like me and you want to bring the bus back before its a memory of better times, then vote for it.”
