The Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) is estimating the cost of expanded transit service at $154,800 for 2017, and just over $465,000 per year for the rest of a three-year agreement with BC Transit.
Earlier this year the SCRD board approved a plan that will see six medium-duty buses added to the fleet in 2017-18, 30-minute service at peak times on Route 90 (the express between Sechelt and the Langdale ferry terminal) and hourly service on Route 1. The following two years will see more frequent service to Halfmoon Bay and expansion of routes to Chatelech Secondary School in Sechelt and Pender Harbour.
SCRD directors got a look at the updated numbers during the Oct. 20 meeting of the infrastructure services committee. The final numbers will come in the 2017 budget, along with requests for budget approval for improvements at the bus yard and other infrastructure.
“Those figures will come forward in the budget process as individual proposals,” said Gordon Dykstra, manager of transit and fleet for the SCRD. Dykstra also told the committee the SCRD will likely see BC Transit’s final numbers for next fiscal year a little later than usual, but he doesn’t expect any surprises. “The tone is positive around transit expansion, of course pending the provincial election, but the signals we’re getting are that it looks promising,” he said.
Rebecca Newlove, a senior planner with BC Transit, has also been making the rounds to update councils in Gibsons and Sechelt on the expansion plans.
At an Oct. 18 committee meeting in Gibsons, she explained that Transit is hoping to develop a schedule that’s also more consistent and a little easier to understand, especially for the hourly trips on Route 1.
“We are in the process of working through schedule options to refine what the expansion next fall will look like in detail,” she said. “We’ll be coming back to the public to provide that information before we implement those service changes and the expansion, but certainly we’re excited to be having more consistent and more frequent service.”
Newlove also said Transit’s long-term goal is still to have buses used for more than five per cent of trips on the Sunshine Coast by 2025.
In other Transit news, Dykstra told the SCRD transportation committee last month that work is underway on adjustments to the bus schedule to match the new sailing schedule BC Ferries will be putting in place to accommodate construction at the Langdale terminal from mid-January to early April of 2017.
