Wroute: A sustainable, affordable, environmentally-conscious alternative to passenger services

Photo by Safina Husein

A new local start-up company, Wroute Inc., has recently announced the expansion of its sustainable, flexible and affordable ride services, to connect Burlington and Hamilton to the Guelph and Waterloo regions.

“We launched in September with a route from Kitchener to Guelph, going from Fairview Park to Guelph Central Station, in Tesla Model X Electric SUVs,” said Jason Hammond, founder and President of Wroute.

Offering a fleet of electric and zero-emission cars, including Tesla Model X 100D vehicles, Hammond hopes to saturate a growing market for sustainable and convenient transportation options.

“The idea is to make the passenger system more robust, fill in the gaps where there is either no service or really low-frequency service so that people can choose to be a passenger more often,” Hammond said.

On Monday, they launched their first expansion to the service, growing their services to the Aldershot GO Station and Mapleview Mall in the Burlington area in the hopes of expanding their current market.

That connection allows the opportunity for those in the Waterloo Region and Guelph the ride with them and connect with the GO and VIA Trains.

“It’s always been arbitrarily difficult to get between Kitchener and Guelph for communities that are so well integrated economically and socially — the passenger service should reflect that,” Hammond said.

As for the growth of the company: though it is still young, Hammond is optimistic for the future, as he understands that the demand is growing far greater than the supply is able to keep up.

According to a Jan. 3 press release on Wroute’s website, their ultimate goal is to “begin to address the need for improved passenger transportation service across the western edge of the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area.”

“A connection to local cities for the airport is something the region has been wanting for a while now,” Hammond said in the release.

“We are pleased to offer student pilots, commercial passengers and commuters to the aviation business community a sustainable and convenient service.”

Furthermore, the zero-emission aspect of the service is an endeavour on Hammond’s part to satisfy the growing demands for action on climate change.

“We need to have more people choosing to be a passenger: not just to reduce our emissions, but also improve the health of our cities,” Hammond said.

“We’re focussed on a zero-emissions approach — and that’s why we mostly use electric vehicles.”

At Wroute, environmentally-sustainable practices go hand-in-hand with ethically sustainable business practices. All employees are paid full-time living salaries with benefits — and they don’t accept gratuities.

“What we’re trying to do is to be a good employer while we’re at it,” Hammond said.

“The thing that sets us apart from other options is that our employees are full-time and our vehicles are operated by staff and they’re owned by the company, so it’s quite professionalized.”

As for the growth of the company: though it is still young, Hammond is optimistic for the future, as he understands that the demand is growing far greater than the supply is able to keep up.

“The model is quite scalable. We can go more and more places — and we certainly hear that from our passengers,” Hammond said.

“Every passenger has their own opinion about what city we need to serve next, so we have a long list of requests,” he chuckled.

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