It was a bumpy road to get there following last year’s record 137-day transit strike, but bus ridership in Whistler is back to pre-pandemic levels—and with it, some additional free weekends and ramped-up service this summer.
At the regular meeting of council on Tuesday, May 2, the Resort Municipality of Whistler (RMOW) received a Whistler Transit System Update Report, which highlighted recent adjustments to the summer schedule. Those included the addition of free rides on Victoria Day and Thanksgiving weekends, as well as for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on Sept. 30.
The free weekends were funded through the RMOW’s Community Transportation Initiative Fund, which was supported by the municipality’s implementation, last month, of year-round pay parking in all the Whistler Day Lots.
“In my view, transit is one of the most important things we can push for as we work to reduce greenhouse gases and provide workers access to an affordable, reliable means of moving about town,” said Mayor Jack Crompton in a release. “We will continue to lobby for funds to expand our service and we are thankful for the creativity of RMOW staff who are reallocating driver time and routes to ensure our system works for our people.”
Originally recommended by the RMOW’s Transportation Advisory Group prior to the pandemic, the additional free weekends could not be implemented during the years of COVID-19 restrictions, the municipality said. With ridership now back to 2019 levels, “the shift has been made to accommodate regular summer and holiday tourism patterns,” the release went on.
The RMOW had endeavoured to improve flagging ridership levels following last year’s Sea to Sky transit shutdown that wound up being the longest public transit strike in B.C. history. Emerging out of the corridor-wide strike, the RMOW made transit free for more than two months, and offered discounted passes through last Halloween.
Officials have also spoken about the need to improve bus service and frequency to entice more riders onboard, a key effort of the RMOW’s overarching Big Moves Climate Action Implementation Plan, and specifically, its ambitious goal to have half of all trips in Whistler be made by transit or active transportation by the year 2030.
At Tuesday’s council meeting, elected officials also heard the community’s feedback on the popular 10 Valley Express route, which will see increased morning and afternoon frequency this summer, beginning June 17. Three more trips have also been added to the 7 Staff Housing route.
The RMOW is also working with BC Transit to create an annual base schedule to which extra service will be added seasonally, intended to make “year-round service more predictable and the transit schedule easier to understand,” the release said.
Mayor and council had requested a 5,000-hour service expansion in September, which, without any additional funds in the provincial budget, was not approved by BC Transit, a development council was “disappointed to learn,” the municipality said.
In other transit news, Whistler Transit plans to roll out new technology on its fleet this fall that will allow for pre-pay cards and pay-by-phone payment options onboard. Council has approved a measure to convert monthly bus passes to 30-day passes customers could begin using at any point of the month, rather than being restricted to the start of the month. Credit card and debit tap pay options will follow at a later date.
