Editor:
Representing Transport Action BC, a local transportation advocacy group, I would like to commend and respond to your article of June 22 highlighting the Sisyphean struggle to obtain the basic amenity of a covered waiting area for busses at the Tsawwassen and Swartz Bay ferry terminals.
It speaks volumes that our provincial transportation planners can consider a $5B bridge replacement to serve South Fraser commuting but can’t put together a $5,000 covered area that connected with the ferry terminal.
With the diversion of more ferry service to Tsawwassen to solve logistical problems getting auto traffic lined up, transit and walk-on users are now literally and figuratively left out in the cold. The solutions here are easy and can be tried and evaluated rather than endless buck-passing that lets the poor customer experience fester.
It should be noted that the failure here doesn’t end at the terminal curb. It is an embarrassment that our transit service is so thin that we subject bus passengers to the indignity of lining up and waiting with uncertainty if they will make the next bus so they can take the 20 to 45 min crowded bus to the next well-serviced transit hub.
Translink and BC Transit can and must do better in planning and coordinating with BC Ferries. With poor customer service, it will only encourage further automobile traffic to clog the Highway 99/George Massey and Highway 17/Malahat corridors and take space from commerce and those who have no option but to drive on.
Alex Mandel/President, Transport Action BC
