Extra buses could be added to popular transit routes in Kelowna next week to alleviate passenger overcrowding. City council will be asked Monday to pay for two additional transit buses for use on the 97 Express and 8 University routes. Cost to the City of Kelowna would be $12,000 a month. "Transit ridership as of September 2011 increased significantly, particularly on key routes serving UBC Okanagan, Okanagan College and Kelowna Senior Secondary/KLO Middle School," reads part of a report to council by staffer Jerry Dombowsky. In some cases, students must wait 45 minutes for a ride as two or three full buses drive by their stop. The current fleet of buses is fully in service during the morning rush hour, so service cannot be improved without the addition of vehicles. Ridership on Kelowna Regional Transit was up nine per cent last year, with much of the increase credited to increased enrolment at UBC Okanagan and Okanagan College. If council approves the extra expense at the Monday meeting, BC Transit says it can have the two additional buses in service before the end of next week because it will attach a high degree of priority to the service expansion. "The transit system risks losing ridership momentum as new passengers who encounter continued pass-ups and overloaded conditions choose to abandon the bus in favour of the single-occupancy vehicle," BC Transit official Steve Harvard writes in a report to council.
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Item 5.06 - Transit Expansion Request, Fall 2011 Passenger Overloads.pdf (1295kb) (2011-09-29)
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