A Metro Transit bus at the Mumford Terminal

More buses in transit plan

University routes a priority in five-year plan

Ana Mirasol Vinas, a student at the Nova Scotia College of Nursing, depends on Route 20 - a bus that goes to and from Herring Cove and the downtown area. But the service doesn't run often enough for her.

"It would be nice if buses ran more frequently at night," she says. "I have waited for over an hour at times, and that can be quite scary in certain areas."

"They do a great job considering the amount of stress that goes with this and still manage to be polite and civil," says Milly Ruff, who frequents Route 1. "Though I find that the outskirts don't get as good a service. Sometimes you'll arrive an hour early or an hour late."

"It's always late. It's never on time," says Emily Perrin, a student at Dalhousie University who relies on Route 1 and Route 10. "The buses are completely random."

This is what some commuters have to say about Metro Transit's quality of service.      

The Halifax Regional Municipality conducted a survey last winter on the state of the transit system. It yielded 9,000 responses, many similar to those listed above on the topic of frequency and convenience of service.

Metro Transit addressed some of those complaints in its $100-million five-year strategic plan that was presented to council on Oct. 27.

Among other changes, Metro Transit plans to make the routes with the highest passenger volume, such as Route 1, which serves the downtown universities, will be a priority during the first year of the plan. Lesser-travelled routes will not see a marked improvement until later in the five-year span.

The first item on the agenda will be to shorten headways to reduce overloading on core and local routes. There are plans for Bus Rapid Transit on Route 1, a service that will travel at high speeds with limited stops, with priority treatment and larger buses. Headways would be reduced to less than five minutes without having to add more buses.

Lori Patterson, Manager of Public Affairs for Metro Transit, acknowledges that commuters want to see such changes, but says Metro Transit can only so much at a time.

"There is a fine line between business and service in the existing transit model," says Patterson. "Ridership and demands of the system have grown. We are limited in what we can do until we can expand terminals to maintain more vehicles."

There has been a three per cent increase in ridership in the past two years and Metro Transit states it has responded to this by adding 15 buses to its fleet and replacing 10 that were in disrepair - the largest expansion to date.

Transit currently has a fleet of 265 buses and three vessels, and according to Patterson this is all that the terminals can accommodate at present. If Metro Transit follows through with the five-year plan there will be 302 buses and five vessels by 2014.

It is in the midst of building a garage that will be able to house an additional 150 buses. The terminal is situated in Ragged Lake and is scheduled for completion next year.

The revenue generated for Transit, according to Patterson, has traditionally come from the fare box and taxes, though the report offers some other suggestions - including fare increases and a rise in bridge tolls, to name a few.

Metro Transit is still considering a number of possibilities for mass commuting, including high speed electric rail and a fast ferry service from Bedford.

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