Powell River Regional District directors were recently updated regarding BC Transit’s study of its operations in this area.
Chris Fudge, regional transit manager at BC Transit, told rural services committee members that BC Transit is undergoing a service review of the Powell River transit system serving City of Powell River and the regional district. He said the review is well advanced and going into its final stages.
Fudge said BC Transit has come up with some draft service change options, which it is getting ready to take out to the public for consultation. He said it is targeting the end of October for that public engagement.
“Really, what we are looking for today is approval on these service options to actually go out to the public for their input,” Fudge said. “We are not asking you to commit to any of these service options at this stage. This is really about what we are taking out for public engagement. We are not asking for dollars to be committed at this point.”
The committee members were shown a comprehensive slide presentation. It outlined the phase one public engagement process, showing there had been input from more than 40 key stakeholder workshop attendees; 13 driver responses; 274 onboard bus survey responses; 258 online survey responses and 159 door-to-door survey responses conducted at Tla’amin (Sliammon) Nation.
For the paratransit service, recommendations included more frequency; Saturday service; later afternoon service; earlier service; commuter service; improved ferry connections and removal of low ridership routing.
The public engagement process also showed that there is desire for two bus stops to be relocated, some bus stop upgrades (rural, most stops along Highway 101 north), more benches and shelters at bus stops and updated bus stop signage.
Preparation for the second phase of public engagement will include open houses and an online survey. It is proposed that open houses be held from October 27 to 31 at Powell River Town Centre Hotel, Lang Bay Community Hall, Texada Island Seniors’ Centre, Lund Community Centre and Tla’amin’s Salish Centre.
