Two routes will be expanded and four new buses will enter service on the West Shore this year as part of a $1.63-million influx for BC Transit in the Capital Region.
This week’s announcement from the Ministry of Transportation came a month after the Victoria Regional Transit Commission’s request for an increased gas tax was denied, putting area expansion plans on hold.
“We’re back on track with the West Shore,” commission chair Susan Brice told the Gazette this week.
The expanded routes will benefit workers and students. The existing Colwood-Dockyards (25) and UVic/Camosun/Royal Roads (39) routes will be extended from the Juan de Fuca exchange to the Langford exchange beginning in September.
“Those will make a big difference in the West Shore and we know that we need to beef up the service out there,” Brice said.
The funding allows the system to add 20,000 service hours and eight new buses overall.
Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton – one of two representatives on the Transit Commission from the western portion of the region – said she is “excited” about the expanded service, but stressed that it’s only a start towards fixing the West Shore’s transit problems.
Getting recognition for transit issues on the West Shore has been “a tough haul,” according to Hamilton, who has sat on the commission board since 2011, but she added that progress has been made.
“It’s an awareness that is awakening out there and you’ll see more of it,” she said.
Still, the influx of cash is seen as a temporary solution to transit funding in the region and a longer-term solution will be sought moving forward.
Most systems in the province outside Greater Vancouver are funded evenly by the province and municipalities. In Greater Victoria, two-thirds of the funding comes from the municipalities, largely because the gas tax has been stalled at three-and-a-half cents per litre for a number of years.
The gas tax is one of three levers of local funding according to Brice, with property taxes and fares making up the rest, but she said an increased gas tax isn’t the only option.
“If the (gas tax) no longer continues to be of interest to the province then we would be looking for some other funding model, maybe similar to the rest of the province,” she said.
Brice said discussions between the commission and BC Transit and ministry staff will continue despite the May 9 election and she’s confident that whoever forms government will look favourably on the organization’s plans.
