ON THE BUSES. Fae Collins Mooney exchanges a few words
with driver Dan Hawke as she boards the Keith #3 bus for a trip
up town. Collins is full of praise for Hawke and his co-workers.

Declining ridership forces cutback

USE IT or lose it.

Faced with a rapid decline in
ridership, the local conventional
bus system will undergo major

surgery this fall.
And if that Fails to reverse cur-
rent problems, B.C. Transit

(BCT) warns service cuts will
follow.

BCT’s latest service review
paints a bleak picture of transit
trends here.

Following a markeling push and
-survey, ridership jumped 20 per
cent over the last half of 1993.

However, that boost was short-
lived. As of May 31 this year, the
review says, revenves were Tun-
ning 23 per cent below budget.
And originally projected to in-
crease to 98,000, annual ridership
is now expected to be less than
76,000.

That has prompted BCT to in-
lroduce route changes on a make-
or-break basis.

The new plan will be given one
full school year to hit targets of
95,000 riders in 1995 and a 24
per cent cost recovery.

But, the report warns, if by July
i it is clear these targets will not
be achieved, ‘the system will be
redesigned with reduced service
hours to reflect the actual levels
of ridership. ”

The review deals only with the
conventional bus system and
notes the. HandyDART system
continues to improve each year.

Under the plan, the following
Toute changes will come into ef-
fect Oct. 1:

* Soucie #1 — extended to
take in the west bench area by ad-

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THE TERRACE INN

A few good men to enloy the finest in

Local bus service
just like old days

By FAE COLLINS MOONEY

PVE NEVER seen it happen in
downtown Vancouver. Maybe it
docs, but I’m doubtful. It happens
here in Tetrace, though. And I
suspect it happens often.

When I was a little girl growing
upon. Vancouver’s North Shore,
in the good old days before The
City got too big, I had a favourite
bus driver. His name was Pepper,
at least that’s what everyone
called him. To six-year-old little
me he seemed old enough to be
my grandpa. His hair was more
salt than pepper, but he was my
friend. He was everyone’s friend.

That was more years ago than I
care fo count, back in the days
when you were more likely to
take the bus than own a second
car. The bus was seldom packed
full of people, which made it easy
tosocialize.

You knew the bus driver by
name. He knew your name, too.
You chatted about important
things like wearing green on St.
Patrick’s Day, and you didn’t
have to worry about missing your
stop. He knew where you got off.

ding a Lanfear Hill-McConnell-
Mountain Vista loop.

Within the horseshoe, the bus
will continue to serve Soucie,
Tuck and Munroe but Straume,
Thomas and Walsh between
Munroe and Eby will be
eliminated.

The outbound run will continue
to serve the Co-op and
arena/pool. The return trip is a
reversal of the outbound except
for those places,

At the moment the Soucic
serves only the horseshos area
and, apart from an afternoon
peak, is hardly used.

BCT concluded that’s because
the area covered was too small
and within easy walking distance
of downtown.

It anticipates the new route will

It was still fun, though, when [
was six years old, to pull the cord
and hear the buzzer announce our
impending departure. And if
Mom was laden with parcels,
Pepper helped her off the bus.

Yours later, still living in the
Lower . Mainland, and not. rich
enough to own a car, I took the
bus. Maple Ridge was a’ quiet
community of commulers, but my
job was just a couple of miles
down the road at the iocal news-
paper..The bus was seldom full,
and sometimes I'd take the ‘grand
tour,’ catching it heading out of
town and enjoying the rural route
it took back to the town’s centre
where I worked.

I knew the bus drivers by name,
and we still talked about_impor-
tant things, like the weather, and
there was sill no need to pull the
cord, I didn’t have to worry about
missing. my stop, Dan and John
knew: where I got off. And if I
was laden with packages, well,
they courteously helped me off
the bus.

Small towns are great. But
small towns located next to big |

bring extra passengers with stu-
dents living on the bench using it
to get to Skeena and Caledonia
schools.

* Halliwell #2 — dramatically
shortened with west bench being
switched to #1 route.

ft. will now run Eby-Walsh-
Lanfear and once. on the bench
follow Thomas-Twedle-Munroe-
Hatliwell. to Skeenaview Drive.
At the bottom of Skeenaview, it
then takes Soucie-Tuck-Eby back
to the Skeena Mall. ;

The buses will no longer pull
into Terraceview Lodge. Resi-
dents unable to walk to the bus
stop will have to call up the
HandyDART vehicle.

* Keith #3 — the name and
numbers change, but the route
Slays almost the same.

A

Name too, and we discuss impor-

‘vice.

board have approved { the changes.

The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, August 24, 1994 - AS

News

In Brief

cities in time get swallowed by
them. That’s when we moved to
Terrace.

I still take the bus, even though
I’m close enough to downtown to
walk. (Still not rich enough to
owna vehicle.)

-Llike the bus. ‘Taking the bus in
a small town is like chatting over
the garden fence,

And, as in times past, it’s
seldom crowded (although I don’t
know if thal is a good thing these
days; I’d hate for Terrace to lose
its public transit system.).

I know the bus drivers here by

tant things like how many years
we've lived in Terrace and why
we've stayed, and, although ]
know I don’t have to, I pull the
cord as my stop approaches and
the buzzer ‘dings’, even though
the driver knows where I get off.
And, if laden with parcels...

Small towns are great. That’s
why I live here — I’m here by
choice.

Freelance writer Fae Collins
Mooney lives on a bus route in
Terrace.

Dropped are the Kalum-
Graham-Pear loop and the run up
Tetrault, New is two-way service
on the route.

The Kalum #3 will swing left
off the overpass and follow Keith
to Kalum, Jt then takes Haugland-
Motitor-Agar-Kenney-Medeek-
Braut-Keith back to the overpass.
The Braun #4. simply reverses
ihat route.

* Thornhill #5 — Only
change here is the addition of a
Hawthorn-Cypress-Juniper-
Balsam detour to take in new de-
velopment in that area.

. Paratransit areas on this run will
revert back to conventional ser-

Both. city council and the
Kitimat-Stikine regional district

Wheels

needed

A REGIONAL campaign to
open a detox and treatment
referral centre needs wheels to
make its point.

Jim Pushie, a local social
services workers, wants to
start a rolling campaign from
the Queen Charlotte Islands,
east toward Prince George
and then south. .

The plan is to gather support
via petitions and letters at
each stop along the way.

“A bus, RV, anything on
wheels would be a help,’’ sald
Gerry King of the Terrace
Anti Poverty Group Society
which is supporting Pushie’s
quest. The society’s phone
number is 635-4631,

Pushie has already formed a
working committee of north-
west politicians and others.
Lately, he’s been in Van-
couver promoting the need for
a detox centre.

Of Princes
and ex-PMs

There were some intriguing
Tumours floating around the
city for a brief period last
Wednesday about Prince
Philip. That was the day he
flew up to the Khutzeymateen
Valley north of Prince Rupert
to declare the area a provin-
cial park and sanctuary. for
grizzly bears.

Bul the weather that mom-
ing at the Prince Rupert air-
port was foggy and there were
suggestions the Prince’s plane
would be diveried to Terrace
before boarding another. air-
craft bound for the Khut-
zeymateen, Alas, the weather
cleared and things went off as
planned.

py alg dee

ACHIE

yur s18,

VA

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