Terminal will be used as was after switchback
The transit terminal in downtown Medicine Hat may be sitting empty at the moment but that is not going to be the case for long with the old transit system to be reinstated, the city says.
“We have clear direction from council that we are to reinstate the old transit system,” said the city’s CAO Merete Heggelund. “This will include the use of the terminal the way it was under that system.”
How long it will take before that happens is a matter of months.
“We are not waiting for any further direction, council’s motion provides the direction we require,” said Heggelund.
Part of the preparations to return to the old transit system include hiring and training 10 new staff, said Heggelund.
Five full-time bus drivers were offered part-time positions on Aug. 15 but prior to that five positions in the department had been left vacant in anticipation of implementing a new system.
The new transit system was implemented to achieve the goals of the city’s “Financially Fit” program and included fairly significant cuts in transit services.
“I think we need to recognize up front that it was fundamentally a service cut. Absolutely it was,” said Heggelund. “It was mandated to be a service cut.”
At the Sept. 20 meeting there was a representative from the city’s transit department to explain the implications of the old and new transit systems.
REDI Enterprises representative on the committee, Margaret Sheward, supports the motion to stick with the new transit system providing some “tweaks and adjustments” are made.
The sort of “tweaks” Sheward has in mind include service on weekends and holidays ,and taxi vouchers from transit when buses are not running.
Under the old system one of the biggest issues was that it took longer in general to reach your destination, said Sheward.
“Providing they do the tweaks that they need to do, it (the new system) has the possibility of being a beneficial system,” said Sheward, who believes most people on the transit advisory committee felt the same.
The feasibility and potential budget for making these “tweaks” was not known when the motion was passed.
“There was discussion but I can’t recall. I just remember that it was going to cost more going backwards,” said Sheward.
PSC did not adopt a resolution as a result of the motion to see council reopen debate on the issue but accepted the recommendation as “information” to be considered as part of the total future solution for transit.
The transit advisory committee was established as a sub-committee of SDAB to advise public services and council on issues related to public transportation, according to a city document.
It has members from a variety of organizations including REDI, CORE, the Senior Citizen’s Advisory Committee and the advisory committee of disability issues.
The motion in favour of keeping the new transit system was introduced by Jeff Decelle, pastor of Unity Lutheran, who is a representative from the Ministerial Association. The News was unable to reach him for comment on Wednesday.