Charges will be made to Abbotsford’s transit system to address late and unreliable buses – starting in September – after council approved the plans last Monday.
The Central Fraser Valley Transit System, which covers Abbotsford and Mission, went through a service improvement review and found that a number of routes had issues arriving on time. The late buses caused disruptions for transit users and operators.
BC Transit proposed cost-neutral service changes to help buses arrive on time and reliably.
But each change may present challenges, such as some reduction of service on certain routes that are not as utilized. For example, there will be a reduction of the number of trips through Matsqui Village on the Mission-Abbotsford connector, as there is low ridership. There will be new bus stops on Highway 11 to increase access to the service from Matsqui Village.
The changes were based on feedback from the public.
The report says that unreliable service, such as late buses and missed transfers, can affect customers’ perception of the service and “potentially result in decreased ridership.”
This is phase one in changes to the system. Phase two includes comprehensive network revisions which will require significant resource re-allocation, additional resources or improved infrastructure.
