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Transit changes on the road ahead

SLRD seeks grants to boost service within the Sea to Sky corridor
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Taking Transit The Squamish-Whistler commuter has become popular with corridor residents. Photo by Maureen Provencal.

Transit was a popular topic at Monday’s SLRD meeting, with board members approving an assortment of initiatives with the hope they will pave the way for a new regional transit service which would operate from Squamish to Lillooet.

Chief administrator for the SLRD, Paul Edgington, explained staff members are trying to create a regional transit planning service and are applying for $1,191,531 for transit infrastructure.

“It would be our intention to do things like build park and rides, bus pullouts, those types of things, in support of transit,” Edgington said.

The money would not be used to purchase additional buses, or for operational funding.

“I guess the analogy would be, as you build a road for a car, we’re building facilities for buses.”

The funds would come from the federal-provincial gas tax grant program, established between federal government and UBCM.

Edgington explained that the funds have been set aside for the SLRD, but staff needed the board’s approval to apply for the funds. They plan to send off the completed application before the end of the year.

The motions passed at Monday’s meeting won’t change the existing Pemberton Valley Transit Service to a regional transit authority, though that may come later.

“We’re keeping the existing authorities in place and what we’re doing is creating just a separate service for the purpose of building infrastructure and bus stops and accessing the money that is potentially available to us.”

The report also made mention of acquiring smaller commuter buses rather than large buses and starting a scheduled service from one end of the regional district to the other.

Pemerton Mayor Jordan Sturdy says he is happy to hear there will be improvements to public transit throughout the corridor.

“I would very much like to see a public transit system that was enhanced and that encouraged people to get out of their vehicles. It’s really challenging to use public transit in this corridor to do anything more than one-off trips,” Sturdy said.

“If there was an increased frequency of buses at a reasonable cost, I think it would add to our sustainability options and our objectives and really provide some alternatives.”

But he isn’t entirely sold on the idea of replacing the existing Pemberton Valley Transit Service with a regional transit authority, and says he would like to see how the power would be distributed.

“If we were to move to the regional model, would we have the same opportunity to affect details of the system, or would we lose some of the control from our own system to that of a regional system?”

Regardless, Sturdy says it’s important that communities within the SLRD are working on this transit initiative together.

“It’s one of the priorities for the community, but it’s also something that is really challenging for local government to do all by themselves. It needs the support of the province.”

Overall improvements to public transportation within the corridor also fit into the provincial government’s 30-Year Vision for the Sea to Sky region, which was included in Monday’s meeting, as well.

On Nov. 9, SLRD staff members attended a meeting held by the Ministry of Transportation to help create this “vision” which is expected to include a strong public transit component, with an expanded inter-urban transit system.

Sturdy says the province’s 30-Year Vision report has raised concerns among some board members, who feel alternate modes of transportation, like rail and water, were dismissed too readily.

“The board had some concerns about the direction… they felt that it was perhaps too automobile-focused,” Sturdy said.

The board accepted the 30-Year Vision report, and Sturdy says they will bring concerns forward to the Ministry of Transportation at a later date.

Board members also approved an application for a Public Transit Agreement/Public Transit Infrastructure Program grant of $105,708 to go towards enhancing the existing Pemberton bus service, which serves the village, Mount Currie and Area C. The funds would be used to put proper signage and schedules in place along the bus route.

“If you want to try and catch the bus in Pemberton right now, you’re hard pressed to understand where the bus stops are, let alone having to stand in the rain to catch the bus,” Sturdy said.

Funding would also go towards developing the Highway 99 trail, which runs from the village to Mount Currie, as a safe, alternate mode of transit.

Sturdy explained that the trail is currently very rudimentary, and should be properly built so it could be paved in the future.

Right now, Whistler Transit operates Pemberton’s transit service. But according to a Nov. 26 report there have been problems running the Pemberton service out of Whistler.

“Many of these issues will soon be exacerbated with the arrival of the new Hydrogen buses in Whistler and the requirement for a new facility to house and fuel them, the necessary retirement of several diesel buses in the current fleet prior to their projected life expectancy, and the planned expansion of the Whistler service over the next 5 years,” the report states.

“As a result, it may become increasingly difficult to separate the PVTS from the corresponding expansion of Whistler Transit’s overhead costs while at the same time attempting to expand and enhance the Pemberton service.”

The report says the current transit system has fallen short of ridership targets by 28.2 per cent, which led to a shortfall of almost $25,000.

The report also states that the timing is ideal to make a change to the transit system — there is an opportunity to get grants and the five-year contract with Whistler Transit comes to an end in the spring.