It’s great news for Delta residents who rely on transit.
TransLink yesterday announced it will back off on further transit service reductions following the B.C. government's announcement this week of a plan to gradually restart the economy greatly impacted by COVID-19.
The province and the transit authority said they want ensure transit service is available in the coming weeks and months, working on a comprehensive solution to address the major financial impacts TransLink has incurred.
TransLink will not only hold off the sweeping service reductions scheduled for May 18, it is also rescinding layoff notices issued to approximately 1,500 employees.
“As a member of the Mayor’s Council I’m very pleased with the collective work that the mayors have done and very impressed with the leadership under chair Jonathan Cote, Mayor of New Westminster,” Harvie told the Optimist. “We were successful in getting the funding… they worked extremely hard on that. For Delta this is great, because we were going to lose almost all of our busses. It won’t be back to normal, but at least it is better than losing it entirely.”
TransLink had announced the service reductions as part of the cost saving measures, including 65 bus routes being suspended, reduced frequency on all remaining routes, reduced hours of service on some routes, while SeaBus, SkyTrain and HandyDART would also be affected.
In Delta, 11 bus routes were to be affected with service discontinued.
A Delta staff report notes that on an average weekday, nearly 2,000 boardings would have been affected with the suspension of the routes.
In particular, a significant number of Delta residents rely on the peak hour express service routes (391, 602, 603, 604) as a key connection to rapid transit.
The elimination of those services in South Delta would leave the 601 bus route as the only remaining alternative to Canada Line, the report notes, adding that in North Delta, residents have the underlying 316 and 319 bus routes available to connect to SkyTrain.
As far as reduced frequency on remaining routes, it was that buses would operate every 30 minutes on most routes with some routes being reduced to a bus every 60 minutes.
Therefore, the same trips would potentially take much longer for Delta residents and there would also be an increased demand for Park-and-Ride facilities, according to the report.
TransLink and the province have been working together to ensure that funding is available to allow for a return to near-regular operations in time for the September school opening
There would be additional increases in the travel time for workers going between Delta and other parts of the region when combined with reduced SkyTrain frequencies on the Expo Line and Canada Line during peak hours.
The suspension of the bus routes, especially the community shuttles, would also reduce overall geographic transit coverage, especially in South Delta, however, bus service from the 601 and 620 lines would still be maintained to Ladner Exchange and Delta Hospital.
The Delta Seniors Bus program is available as an alternative option for service to medical facilities and shopping locations within Delta, though.
The report also notes additional safety measures on buses have significantly reduced the available seating capacity of the buses.
Given the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, TransLink has developed several possible response and recovery scenarios, all anticipate significant funding shortfalls with further deficits in 2021.
TransLink continues to call on the federal government to provide financial aid, something Harvie and other Metro mayors are doing as well.
Being forced to cut vital transit service so deeply and widely is not a viable option for the community or the region, Harvie wrote to Delta MP Carla Qualtrough.
Over 150,000 Metro Vancouver residents continue to use TransLink every week and 80 per cent are using it to access essential services like grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals, wrote Harvie.
He noted that 43 per cent of current users are using transit to get to their jobs in essential service sectors, including the health care or food-related sectors.
Suspension of the bus routes also greatly reduces transit coverage in Delta and would have a disproportionate impact on students, seniors and the disadvantaged who rely on transit as their primary mode of transportation, he added.
