OPINION
Better buses Advocating for affordable and green alternatives here and regionally, locals are demanding more from BC Transit. But without the Feds on board, will we get it? BY PIETA WOOLLEY | pieta@prliving.ca tudents who want to come home on weekends. Grandparents missing their families. Everyone who doesn’t have a car, and especially those who have trouble walking. When Diane Wolyniec and Rae Fitzgerald brought petitions to Quality Foods four Saturdays this summer asking for government to run a bus connecting Powell River to Vancouver, these are a few of the stories they heard. More than 2,000 people signed. What do they want? An affordable public transit bus that will travel from Powell River to the Vancouver Airport each day, without forcing people to walk on and off ferries. The existing bus, the Sunshine Coast Connector (SCC), is privately owned. The company announced this summer that it will reduce service to just four months a year. Currently, it charges $75 one way and ends at Langdale, which Diane and Rae say is intolerable
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for elders and anyone managing luggage, pets or young children. At press time, the SCC bus was “cancelled due to mechanical issue until further notice,” according to the Web site “We heard so many angry stories,” said Rae, a retired hospital unit clerk, who noted the duo is continuing to collect signatures and anecdotes. “Look at Europe and how they move people,” said Diane, a retired salesperson. They’re not the only ones demanding more from Powell River Transit. This spring, Powell River’s Youth Council asked for transit to be free for passengers – something the body is currently looking in to. No-fare transit might sound kooky, but many cities in Canada and around the world have instituted it in an effort to both move people with dramatically less climate impacts, and encourage elders, especially, to connect with their communities.
THEY’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT, ANYMORE: Because, frankly, they can’t. The Sunshine Coast Connector, which drives passengers between Langdale and Powell River, cut its $75 each way service to just four months a year. Diane Wolyniec and Rae Fitzgerald, above, collected over 2,000 local signatures demanding a BC Transit alternative. In addition, fares make up just 17.8 percent of the Powell River transit budget ($250,075 of $1,402,238 in 2017/18, according to an email from BC Transit’s media department. That’s about on par with the BC Transit average; fares represent 16.8 percent of funding.) The rest comes from provincial and local governments. If fares are a barrier keeping potential passengers off the bus, surely we can find another
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• october 2019 • prliving.ca
source of funding for that $250,075 to ensure everyone has a ride, who needs one.
This is where bus fares, gas prices and the federal election all collide.
In Metro Vancouver, which runs an impressive network of buses, SkyTrain, CanadaLine, SeaBus and the West Coast Express, revenues come from other sources, besides fares and local governments: a 17 cent per litre tax on gas