Starting on July 8, residents of Cache Creek will get to catch a ride with BC Transit to Kamloops, 100 Mile House, Ashcroft, and Clinton as part of the new Ashcroft-Cache Creek-Clinton Transit System.
At council meetings last week the Villages of Ashcroft and Clinton, which operate a local transit service in conjunction with BC Transit and Yellowhead Community Services, voted to endorse the signing of a new three-party agreement which sees the Village of Cache Creek rejoin the service.
Cache Creek was part of the original transit service in 2008, but withdrew in 2013. In September 2018 Cache Creek council moved to ask for the costs involved in rejoining the system, something many residents wanted to see. Earlier this year council voted to rejoin the transit system.
“I’m grateful that the Villages of Ashcroft and Clinton stuck with the program, even though there were some start-up faults and bumps in the road (no pun intended),” says Cache Creek mayor Santo Talarico.
“I’m very grateful that they bore the brunt of keeping it operational, and opened the door for Cache Creek to opt back in and allow this service to be a valuable asset to the citizens of Cache Creek.”
Cache Creek CAO Martin Dalsin says that he’s very happy to see Cache Creek back as part of the system.
“All of council wants this, and a large number of people in Cache Creek want this too. We’ve had a lot of calls to the Village office.”
The stop in Cache Creek will be at the Visitor Centre end of the parking lot at the Cache Creek Community Hall. Dalsin says that while everyone is pretty sure the site will work as a pick-up and drop-off point, they’re leaving the door open in case it doesn’t work.”But I see no reason why it won’t.”
Talarico says that the Village will be getting feedback on the Community Hall site to make sure they have right location for the majority of users. “We’ll wait and see. It will be trial and error to determine the best site for pick-up and drop-off.”
Dalsin notes that the door is open for door-to-door service within the community, a service currently offered in Ashcroft and Clinton on Wednesdays and Fridays.
“It’s not part of the first year. We’ll see how [the new service] works first. If we start getting a lot of calls we’ll look at it more closely.”
“We’re looking forward to having the service back in operation in Cache Creek,” says Talarico.
“The transit scene was one of the larger topics of discussion at [last year’s] all-candidates meeting, and something people here wanted us to look into. I’m happy they made their voices heard and that we were able to follow up.”
Route 1 (Ashcroft to Clinton) will make stops in Cache Creek on Wednesdays and Fridays. The on-request service to Kamloops and 100 Mile House will be every Monday (100 Mile House will be on the last Monday of each month).
For more information on routing, schedules, and fares, visit www.bctransit.com.
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