Transit years away from running buses to new Aurora subdivision
Not everyone was excited about Costco’s grand opening on Friday.
Carla Harris, for one, was frustrated by the store’s move three kilometres east of its longtime location.
“It is really frustrating because I think that we’re not considering how many people are left out of the equation, and this applies to city transit everywhere in Regina,” said Harris, who cannot drive due to a disability, and relies on Regina Transit to get around the city.
“Newcomers, Indigenous people, youths, seniors, and people with disabilities like myself, there’s a lot of us who are being overlooked and who are not getting proper access to affordable things.
“So Costco brings attention to the problem, but really the bigger problem is a lot more broad than that.”
Public transit is unlikely to reach the new Costco any time soon.
“We typically do not provide a bus service to a company,” said Regina Mayor Michael Fougere, who attended the store’s grand opening.
Transit service is based on people living in an area, said Fougere.
Costco is the first business in the new Aurora subdivision near the eastern outskirts of Regina. Residential development is part of the neighbourhood’s concept plan, but Fougere couldn’t say when that would begin.
The Southeast Regina Neighbourhood Plan, amended in 2016, is vague. It states, “Development is expected to occur over the next 20 years.”
“At some point we will be providing bus service. We do that with every area of the city; it just depends on the pace of growth,” said Fougere. “If we have an application to have service out here, we will look at that.”
The nearest bus stop at this point is on Quance Gate, about two kilometres west of Costco, according to Google Maps.
Harris said it takes her about an hour and a half to travel from her house near the university to get to the east end.
“For me to get to the east end at all, I have to switch buses three times … and a lot of times between one bus to another there’s a five- to 10-minute wait generally for the transfers,” said Harris. “It’s not even worth me trying currently.”
“We need to fix that,” said Fougere. “We’ve been working on that.”
He said the city is applying for more infrastructure funding to expand bus routes.
“Ridership continues to go up, but we have a lot of work to do to make buses more sustainable and competitive with cars, no question about that. We need work to be done on that.”
John Hopkins, Regina Chamber of Commerce CEO, noted that likely not many people would travel to Costco on a city bus.
“This very much is a development where people drive to. You’re not going to see people taking transit and having all these bags and boxes and all of that,” he said.
But the area will soon be home to the new Landmark Cinemas, as well as restaurants and other businesses.
The lack of bus service “almost feels like punishment. We need to be allowed to have a social life where we spend our disposable income,” said Harris. “And we need to have safe access to our jobs that are not just office jobs.”