Nicola Valley transit users might be able to expect Saturday bus service as early as July.
City Councillor Alastair Murdoch, also a representative of the Nicola Valley Transportation Society (NVTS), made the unofficial announcement at a regular council meeting May 10 after attending a BC Transit conference in Penticton.
“As far as we know, we’re hoping to start at the beginning of July,” said Murdoch. “It’s still unofficial – we’re waiting for confirmation from BC Transit – but we’re pretty confident.”
“That’s the strongest message we’ve received from Transit.”
At this point, Murdoch explained, the City of Merritt and the NVTS have done everything that needs to be done on their end, including providing pre-budget approval for funds to expand the service, and are now waiting for the final word from Transit, which contributes just over half of the budget.
In February, council gave pre-budget approval for $16,350 to go towards the Saturday service expansion as well as the addition of a lunchtime service on weekdays, however Murdoch said that Saturday service is something that they have been pushing for since Merritt got a transit system.
“This council has been actively lobbying both B.C. Transit and the Ministry since Sept. 2009,” he said, adding that there is definitely a demand for the service.
Besides shift workers, Murdoch said a lot of the demand is from parents, particularly in Lower Nicola, who would prefer the option of a bus service to shuttling kids back and forth to and from town on Saturdays.
Originally B.C. Transit said they would implement the expanded service in September, however council has pushed to get the service running by July in time for Mountainfest, The Great Canadian Bike Rally and Merritt’s 100th Homecoming Week.
Murdoch also said that a weekday lunch hour service will be implemented at the same time so that buses will run continuously throughout the day.
“When you know that a bus service is regular, it encourages you to use it,” said Murdoch.
Besides the convenience, Murdoch said the expanded bus service makes sense from a green perspective and encourages kids to be independent.
“It ties in with everything we’re trying to do with going green and a car going back and forth doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It also gets young people using the buses and studies show that the older you get the harder it is to ride a bus for the first time.”
In order to accommodate increased scheduling, the NVTS is looking at hiring at least one new driver. He also said that since the city has put aside enough money for a whole year there will be more than enough to implement the service. The current cost-sharing formula has the city covering 49.31 per cent of the cost and B.C. Transit covering the remaining 50.69 per cent.
In February council also considered an expansion request from the Coldwater Band and Area N to cover areas along the Coldwater Road, however, Murdoch said the city is not prepared to fund this at this time because the expansion would require purchasing an additional bus.
“We don’t need an extra bus and there’s no reason why the city taxpayers should pick up the cost,” he said. “Right now our volume of passengers is not sufficient to justify that.”
The original target was six people an hour and currently the NVTS transports an average of 12 people per hour.
