About a dozen people attended a TransLink community dialogue meeting in White Rock in a meeting room at the curling arena in Centennial Park last Tuesday.
The meeting, which was not open to media, was part of a consultation process to develop a three-year plan for public transit in Metro Vancouver that was announced last month at a briefing for reporters by TransLink.
Among the questions on a seven-page questionnaire distributed at the White Rock round table were a number that asked participants to rank their reaction to several proposed TransLink cost-cutting measures.
It used a scale that ranged from “very concerned” to “somewhat concerned,” “not very concerned,” “not all concerned” and “not sure” to comment on a variety of proposals that could reduce quality of service, the document warned.
One question in the series noted that tightening schedules to reduce the amount of spare time between when a bus arrives and when it leaves could mean a “less viable bus schedule.”
Using what the questionnaire described as “the right-sized” or smaller vehicles on certain routes could mean riders “may not get the same type of bus all the time and there may be an increase in overcrowding.”
The document also warns fewer spare buses could be available and riders may have to wait up to an extra minute longer on the SkyTrain Expo and Millennium lines on weekend.
Other questions ask participants to comment on the proposed move to charge for parking at all TransLink park-and-ride lots, and reduction of bus frequency on so-called “low-demand” routes.
Groups invited to participate in the White Rock meeting included members of the Fraser Stoke Recovery Club and the Alzheimer’s Association.
