BC Transit is considering improvements to Campbell River’s transit system that include expansion of service and two new transit exchanges at either end of the city.
Cory McPherson, regional transit manager, James Wadsworth, senior transit planner, and Glen Christie of Watson and Ash met with city council at its Committee of the Whole meeting last week to present the changes being proposed.
The transit plan includes an additional 1,500 annual hours of service, two extra buses and additional bus stops as required. The target date for implementation is September, 2017.
One of BC Transit’s key changes, however, is the establishment of transit terminals in Campbellton and Willow Point to support a proposed restructure of the city’s transit network.
That would involve consolidating the 11 existing bus routes into nine and improving service frequency to 20 minutes or more at peak travel times along the Dogwood/Alder corridor, instead of 30 minutes currently.
BC Transit has slated the transit hubs to be established in Campbellton on 16th Avenue in between where Highway 19 splits in two directions and on Erickson Road at Highway 19A in Willow Point.
Moore and Wadsworth said in their presentation to council that “a number of locations were considered and evaluated” for the two terminals.
“Factors considered in site evaluation include impacts to adjacent uses, customer needs, transit functional requirements, on-street parking, capital and operating costs.”
But Coun. Ron Kerr said he had concerns about the hub locations and wanted more input from city staff and the community.
Council agreed and voted to have city staff conduct additional neighbourhood consultation on the two transit exchanges and bring the comments back to council for consideration.
Meanwhile, Campbell River has been allotted $15 million of the $160 million made available through a provincial and federal government partnership for regional transit projects.
The money is expected to be used to build a new operations and maintenance facility.