I am writing to voice my condemnation of the recent changes to the 320 Surrey Central/Fleetwood bus service with the introduction of the 96 B-Line.
For a short while recently, the 320 ran almost every few minutes. That was extreme and a waste of money and manpower. Now it has been reduced to every 15 minutes.
Scheduling the 320 runs somewhere between these extremes and closer to what is was before the change – i.e. nine- to 10-minute intervals – would be prudent at least during morning and evening rush hours.
As I stand in the long line-up at Surrey Central SkyTrain station waiting for the 320 to go home every weekday evening, I see the 96 B-Line buses zooming back and forth every seven minutes with maybe only a couple of dozen people in them. How many transit users benefit from this service? Perhaps a small number of people in Newton who want to go shopping at the new Guildford mall? Again, a waste of money and manpower. Maybe the mall should subsidize the B-Line.
I cannot rationalize what TransLink was thinking. How are the ever-growing numbers of us who have abodes along the 320 route from the Surrey Central SkyTrain statio to Fleetwood supposed to commute to and from work on a daily basis in reasonable time? If TransLink is over their budget, why are they instituting a new service that is not being used to its fullest extent and penalizing the 320 bus service that is?
This further clarifies that TransLink has no comprehension into how to spend their finances wisely.
If however, TransLink is intent on screwing us out of reasonable service on this very busy route, they should use the big B-Line buses on the 320 route – at least then the two busloads of people waiting in line during rush hour periods could all get on, and the second busload would not be left behind waiting for the next bus. Use the regular-size buses for the B-Line.
J. Jordan
Surrey
