Regional District of Nanaimo Transit is seeking more feedback on future bus service in the south end of Nanaimo.
From Nov. 26-Dec. 4, open houses will be held across Nanaimo and Daniel Pearce, RDN transportation and emergency services manager, said input will be used for the South Nanaimo Local Area Transit Plan. It will provide guidance for busing service in the area for the next seven years. The upcoming sessions are the second phase of public engagement with the first phase held last February.
“The [plan] is looking at where future route restructuring can occur and where future expansions could occur in the southern regions, so really this plan is looking at outside of 2019 and beyond,” said Pearce. “It’s focusing on mainly the routes 5 (Fairview), 6 (Harewood), the 7 (Cinnabar/Cedar) those are the primary ones. The 30 (Nanaimo hospital) is also looked at, but definitely the 5, 6 and 7 are the focus point.”
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Currently RDN Transit is experiencing crowding on routes travelling to Vancouver Island University, Hammond Bay Road as well as 30, 5, 6 and 7 and Pearce said it has heard “loud and clear” that people want increased frequency.
He said next week’s sessions will take feedback on plans compiled from the sessions held previously.
“From there, we’ll go back and see, ‘Have we got it right?’ ‘Do we need to change anything?’ We’ll do a follow up report through our transit select committee and then to our board in early 2019 saying what we heard, what’s it looking like. If we feel like we need to go back out for public consultation, then we will, if not, we could possibly present that finalized plan for future endorsement to our board,” said Pearce.
The previous board voted down a Duke Point ferry terminal service proposal last March and while Pearce said that isn’t on the table, it will be something that is brought forward to the new board.
“It’s not considered as part of the south Nanaimo review because we’re just looking at south Nanaimo, we’re not looking at regional connections,” said Pearce. “With that said, we do understand that both the northern and the southern connections are important. Those were both not considered by the last board, but with a new board we are going to be bringing forward those for consideration to re-examine; that will be in 2019.”
A survey can be filled out by following the link at https://bctransit.com/nanimo-project-updates.
The RDN will allocate 5,000 service hours to Route 40, the VIU route, come January.
Next week’s open house sessions begin Nov. 26 with one at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital from 11 a.m.-1:30 p.m. and another at the Cranberry fire hall from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Cedar Heritage Centre will host a session from 3-5 p.m. on Nov. 27. Nov. 28 will see two forums: at the VIU cafeteria (10 a.m.-1 p.m.) and at Port Place Shopping Centre from 3-6 p.m. The Moose hall will host a forum from 6:30-8 p.m on Nov. 30. VIU will host another open house at room 211 in building 355 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. on Dec. 4.
