Thursday, July 18, 2019 ~ VICTORIA [Updated 6 pm July 19]
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
There will be 118 new BC Transit buses rolling out onto Greater Victoria roads and around BC thanks to federal and provincial funding announced jointly today July 18 by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and BC Premier John Horgan. This is in addition to 106 new buses announced last November.
About 75 of those buses will be deployed in the Greater Victoria area, with about 25 for use in the west shore. Ten of the new buses are fully electric.
The mid-afternoon announcement of $31 million from the federal government and $31.5 million from the BC government was held in the BC Transit paint and body shop (recently opened in May) on Gorge Road East in Victoria. The total project cost is $79 million, with all municipalities — through the Capital Regional District (CRD) — making a contribution of over $16 million.
Gathered for the event were municipal leaders (including Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps, and members of the BC Transit Board of Directors including Colwood Mayor Rob Martin, and Oak Bay Mayor Kevin Murdoch), BC Transit workers and media. Attending were BC Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Claire Trevena and Susan Brice, Chair, Victoria Regional Transit Commission.
BC Transit President and CEO Erinn Pinkerton first thanked Trudeau and Horgan for the funding that “reduces the impact on local community partners” for helping to deliver reliable service to BC Transit customers. Funds not spent on retrofitting older buses allow more funds for use in supplying bus shelters, priority bus lanes and connections.
Ridership is increasing with an “all time high for demand”, said Pinkerton, saying there were almost 57 million riders in 2018. The fleet travels 59 million kilometres a year. More buses mean less pressure on maintenance staff to get buses going every morning.
“It’s essential to match the right bus to each of our 130 communities to all of those unique routes,” said Pinkerton, emphasizing investments in modern technology. She said most of the fleet is now equipped with CCTV cameras and automated passenger counters. By the end of this month, the automated vehicle location system called Next Ride will be live in seven communities (including Greater Victoria) with more to follow.
“Being able to purchase new modern vehicles that come equipped with great technology is a great benefit to us,” said Pinkerton. She explained that buses won’t have to be pulled out of service to outfit them. “New buses are beneficial to communities immediately.”
Of the 118 new buses, 10 will be long-range zero emission and 26 will run on compressed natural gas.
Premier John Horgan after noting this to be the second anniversary of his government being sworn in, thanked Trudeau for being there on the day, as well as his taking part in today’s announcement being a “significant symbol” of a partnership working together to meet the needs of the travelling public.
“The right bus for the right route in the right community, that’s what working together can do to address climate change,” said Horgan.
“Reducing congestion and getting people home faster” will be an improvement, said Horgan who as MLA for the west shore constituency of Langford-Juan de Fuca will see immediate impacts in his local area. Reducing emissions with the low carbon fleet is “a step in the right direction” for a greener, cleaner environment, Horgan said.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said announcements like this “make a difference”, including to the premier whose local area will benefit from the investments. “No investments happen without a lot a people working with different organizations and orders of government to make things happen,” Trudeau reminded the crowd, saying that in Victoria and the south island the work of a lot of people “investing our community and providing solutions for citizens” has taken place toward today’s announcement.
“British Columbia — including the south island and Victoria area — is growing,” said Trudeau. “The use of public transit has increased in step. More students, workers and families are choosing the bus for getting from point A to point B,” said Trudeau, noting the aspects of safety, traffic efficiency and being great for environment.
“Increased ridership means great demand on our transit networks,” the Prime Minister said, adding that his government is addressing the need to invest for the future to “help the middle class and keep people moving”.
With lingo used close to home in the west shore, Trudeau acknowledged that “those living in the fast growing western communities in the area struggle every day with the Colwood Crawl”. The $31 million federal investment is intended to help shorten the west shore commute while addressing congestion and “getting everyone home just a little sooner”, said Trudeau at the podium.
“Investing in the future of this province, making sure people can keep moving and stay moving, strengthen the middle class, protect the environment, and make our towns and cities even better places to live…” these were Trudeau’s plus-points. He closed with: “It’s great to be home in BC.”
In addressing questions from media, Trudeau said that yes the west shore will benefit, but “this is about investments over the past years, continuing respond to local needs and demands”. He said that Premier Horgan as “a local MLA on top of being premier, John has certainly been quick to say we need more investment in infrastructure in general and transit in particular”.
Trudeau said that his government has invested in 67 Vancouver Island infrastructure projects worth $250 million. “We’re here to be investing, and it’s constant, we see the pressures that communities are facing are increasing, we’re glad to be there in a strong way to be a partner with a great government this is focused on responding to people’s needs,” said Trudeau.
Out in the west shore, Langford will have a key role in the rollout of some of the new buses, said Horgan; the compressed natural gas aspect is based at the Langford bus depot in the Westhills area.
Langford Mayor Stew Young says the bus announcement is great news. “Langford has one of the longest commutes which means a huge reduction in carbon emissions compared to the current buses,” he told West Shore Voice News.
Mayor Young reinterated the need for an HOV bus lane (all the way to Langford) and to “do something with the E&N corridor”. Referring to the South Island Regional Transportation Strategy coming from the BC provincial government, Mayor Young say he hopes that report will include a long term solution and funding.
Afterward, Colwood Mayor Rob Martin (who sits on the Victoria Regional Transit Commission) said he was pleased that the west shore concerns were mentioned in Trudeau’s remarks today. It’s great we’re going with electric vehicles. Very happy the federal government is stepping. Federal government recognizes that supplying buses is an expensive part of building the infrastructure to let an electric vehicle work.
Victoria Regional Transit Commission Chair Susan Brice told West Shore Voice News that the commission has many plans to improve the transit system in Greater Victoria. “This is one thing we wanted to start doing, to transition the fleet. This is a great start … 10 new electric buses, I couldn’t be happier,” said Brice.
All buses in fleet are managed regionally. “Staff will determine where best to deploy the vehicles,” said Brice, explaining the buses may not always be on the same routes. A test with an electric vehicle was done a year ago, trying out the bus in various parts of the region to make sure all the conditions are suitable for an electric bus.
Electric buses will go out to west shore which is “a very important part of the system,” says Brice.
“We are always getting good pressure from Langford and we are always responsive to it,” says Brice. She says that servicing the west shore with buses is important for the downtown Victoria area in that fewer cars will be coming to the core which also improves the environment.