Kelowna’s 5,000-hour bus service expansion slashed 81% by BC Transit

| August 26, 2019 in Kelowna

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Kelowna city council was not pleased with Monday’s update on the 5,000-hour expansion of transit service that was expected to begin next September.

The previously planned expansion will now be reduced from 5,000 to 950-hours due to a lack of capacity for more buses at the Kelowna transit depot on Hardy Street. 

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“This is really disheartening news, the city has been waiting for years to have the hours increased,” said councillor Ryan Donn. 

“I read this report and went ‘no really?'” said councillor Gail Given. 

"To be receiving this news at this stage of the plan is very frustrating," commented councillor Brad Sieben. 

"There should have been an interim plan in place to provide the capacity."

According to BC Transit, the process of finding a new facility to accommodate the additional buses needed to expanded service has begun, but any completion date remains years off. 

One silver lining is that the Number 8 University line is still scheduled to receive 1,800 of expanded service beginning this September, for which the transit depot has already allocated capacity. 

Ridership along the Number 8 has surpassed that of the 97 route, while also carrying the dubious distinction of the city's second-most unreliable route.

In 2018, Kelowna’s fleet of double-decker buses left town and was replaced with a fleet of conventional 40-foot buses that BC Transit determined to be cheaper and more efficient.

Coun. Ryan Donn floated the idea of bringing back the double-decker buses that in theory, would represent twice the capacity with a similar size storage footprint at the Kelowna transit facility.

However, BC Transit maintained there has been no noted intention of reinstating the unique buses. 

Kelowna represents BC Transit’s largest “tier one” bus system in the province, comparable to cities such as Kamloops, Nanaimo and the Central Fraser Valley.

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