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Transit critic elated CBRM has shelved plans to cut 200 hours of bus service this year.
GLACE BAY — A Glace Bay man says it looks like those who depend on public transportation aren’t being thrown under the bus after all.
Bill Davies, 76, said Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor Cecil Clarke announced at a recent CBRM budget consultation meeting that 200 hours slated to be cut from the Transit Cape Breton operation will not take place in 2015.
“That was great to hear that, just great,” Davies said. “I was really surprised. I knew it’d be awhile before they’d start cutting, but that was really good news.”
Davies has been advocating against the cuts, saying he has been taking the bus on a regular basis for about six years and cuts to the bus route would leave him stranded because of his health issues and would also impact volunteers at the Glace Bay Hospital.
In May 2014, CBRM council approved a budget that included cutting 200 of the 600 operating hours from Transit Cape Breton, measures expected to save the municipality about $300,000 a year.
Davies took a petition protesting the cuts to Clarke in October, which the CBRM then forwarded to Municipal Affairs Minister Mark Furey.
Davies said people he’s speaking to in the community are happy with the CBRM’s decision.
“I hope I played a small part in their decision,” he added.
Davies said he’d now be advocating for those who depend on public transportation for more buses on the weekend.
“We don’t have a small bus service on Saturday and we don’t get the big bus on Sunday. The stores are open, we’re losing out.”
Deputy mayor and Dist. 9 Coun. George MacDonald confirmed the 200 hours to be cut from Transit Cape Breton are off the table.
“There are going to be no cuts this year, it’s going to be status quo this year and we’re going to look into other ways to save money, I guess.”
However, MacDonald said, there will be reconfiguration of routes and other measures.
“There are routes probably not being used and others they might need extra buses on. A reconfiguration is a study into what’s being used and what’s not being used. That’s still going to be done.”
MacDonald said no one can predict what will happen in 2016 but the CBRM is going to look at other ways to utilize the transit service, including talks with Department of Education of mix- ing the Transit Cape Breton buses with school buses.
“That’s a long way down the road.”
Clarke had returned calls by press time, butr Christina Lamey, spokesperson for the mayor’s office, said at this time the CBRM is looking at holding status quo with the bus service.
“Over the past few months a lot of work has gone into finding different ways to make the situation work.”
Lamey said a year ago the CBRM got a lot less money than they were expecting from the province.
The CBRM received $425,000 in funding from the province for municipal transit, $55,000 less than the $480,000 the municipality had been expecting from Municipal Affairs.
Lamey said the initial reaction was, that if this is all the money they’d have to work with, they would be forced to reduce the bus service by 200 hours.
“Now, of course, we’re spending a lot of time looking at how we can make it work with the lower amount of money.”
“There is a lot of moving parts around in order to find an alternate way to deliver the service, which means maybe finding new ridership. “
She said that requires some liaising with the Department of Community Services and the Department of Education.
“The goal is to have as much service as possible. Different ways are being worked out to try and make that happen.”
Damon Zhang of China, currently lives in Glace Bay while attending Cape Breton University. Zhang said he depends on the bus service and was glad to hear the cuts aren’t being made.
“I use the bus a lot, it’s important to me.”