Busses to run on holidays

The city’s transit service will take to the roads on statutory holidays under a memorandum of understanding city council approved Monday night.

To take effect in September 2017, it will add 2,500 more hours of service to the city’s conventional or “fixed route” system at a cost of about $89,000 to the city.

The additional hours will also allow for improvements to the evening and weekend services.

The MOU also calls for 1,050 more hours starting in September 2019 to improve evening service for the community bus system along route 91 (Hart to Spruceland via North Nechako) as well as route 46 (CNC to downtown via Queensway) on Sundays at a cost of $68,000 to the city.

Operated under a contract with the Carefree Society, it uses lighter-duty vehicles but is also fully accessible and provides some door-to-door service for residents under-served by the conventional system.

It currently provides hourly service until 7:30 p.m. along routes 91 and 46.

Coun. Jillian Merrick said the improvements will not only be “pretty crucial” to students in the city but “it’s huge for our working population as well.”

“I mean, the reality is those nine-to-five jobs are coveted, and if you work in the retail sector, you don’t get stat holidays off and the reality is many of those people have to pay for taxis to get to work on those days because they simply work in minimum wage and the retail sector doesn’t afford you the luxury of owning a vehicle.”

The Prince George system is the only one of its size in B.C. without service on statutory holidays.

BC Transit will cover $113,300 of the additional cost to the conventional system and it’s predicted revenue from bus fares will rise by $40,500.

For the community system, BC Transit will contribute $33,200 and revenue is expected to rise by $2,100.

Detailed planning on how the hours for the conventional system will be distributed is in the works.