By Steve Hubrecht
It’s a little bit easier to get on the bus these days. That’s because BC Transit has tweaked the public transportation system here in the Columbia Valley.
The new system launched on Monday, Nov. 4. It has no more on-demand service, but has added three extra bus runs on one of its main routes and altered the physical route so that it loops further into Invermere,
The three extra bus runs are on Route 33 Invermere Local. Because there are more buses running, riders don’t need to wait quite as long to catch their bus.
The new loop on the route includes a bus stop near J.A. Laird Elementary School and David Thompson Secondary School (DTSS), the first time the bus has come into upper Invermere (previously it circled through Invermere’s downtown).
Route 31 (which links Invermere to Radium Hot Springs and Edgewater in the north), and Route 32 (which links Invermere to Windermere, Fairmont Hot Springs and Canal Flats in the south) also had some minor runtime adjustments in an effort to better align schedule times.
Invermere mayor Al Miller and Invermere councillors Kayja Becker and Theresa Wood said the new stop near the schools is helpful, since in the past people needing to get to that part of Invermere from outlying communities via public transit had to walk from downtown. Miller noted the new stop is especially good for people trying to commute to the College of the Rockies.
BC Transit spokesperson Jamie Weiss told the Pioneer the changes stem from regular reviews undertaken by BC Transit crews.
The crews came to the valley and rode all of the routes, asking the public, the bus drivers and local officials for input. Through this process, they learned that the on-demand bus service being offered was barely used, if it was used at all. So they decided to re-allocate the resources from that service to extra bus runs and to create the new stop in Invermere.
“It means buses are more frequent, and we’re hoping it gets more people out of their cars and on the buses,” said Weiss.
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BC Transit has also added the Columbia Valley bus routes to its NextRide technology service, which lets people use smart phone apps to determine exactly where the buses are at any given moment, and just how long those buses will take to arrive at their next stops.
Radium mayor Mike Gray said that in general the feedback he’s heard about the transit changes has been positive.
“People are happy to see we are trying to tweak a system that has been a challenge, as have most transit systems in rural parts of B.C.,” he said.
“The new stop added is not in our community (Radium) but it does make more of Invermere more accessible for Radium residents.”
Gray did add, however, that there is still room to improve public transportation, as many people (and many employers) would like to have some sort of bus service on weekends and in the evenings.
In terms of employees living in outlying communities and commuting by public transportation to Radium, Invermere or Fairmont Hot Springs for work, “we have a broad spectrum of employers in the valley,” explained Gray, adding many of these employers would love for their workers to be able to use buses outside Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Gray’s sentiments where echoed by Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) Area F director Susan Clovechok.
She told the Pioneer that although she hasn’t heard a great deal of feedback yet, what she has heard has been divided.
“Some feedback has been great, people appreciate the changes. But some of the feedback has been that these changes are not enough; that we need weekends and evenings,” she said.
The current changes “are important. But are we all the way there yet? No. It’s a positive move forward, but we still have more work to do,” said Clovechok.
