Coun. Bill Scarrow has some concerns about Lake Country’s bus route times and how they impact late-night workers.
“We do not have a bus coming to Lake Country between the hours of 11 at night and 1:22 a.m. This is a concern for many people who work in the service industry, who do not have vehicles, who work in places like at Four Points and downtown Kelowna, who are unable to use the bus to come home unless they wait until 1:22 a.m. at UBCO,” he said during Tuesday night’s regular council meeting.
“The existing bus that we have, the 1:22 a.m. bus, departs UBC as in-service throughout Lake Country and back to UBC, but once it gets back to UBC there are absolutely no other buses to transfer to,” he said.
The inbound 23 Lake Country route is useless unless someone is attending class at 1:22 a.m., Scarrow said.
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“The use of that bus is very low… it would be so comfortable to have that bus moved forward an hour, or put into a better timeframe (closer to 11 p.m.),” Scarrow said.
Jerry Dombowsky transit and programs manager with the City of Kelowna outlined recent transportation updates to the district during the presentation.
In January, the routes will be evaluated and adjustments will be made, he said.
“It looks like we have enough adjustments, particularly around service to the university… we’ll note that with BC Transit,” he said.
Scarrow also outlined issues with the buses not going to the airport on weekends, which is when international students would primarily be using the stops and they often have large bags to carry, he said.
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With the expansion of the airport, and a new Okanagan Gateway study, the possibility of a new rapid bus route to the airport which would provide a new link with the UBC exchange 23 route could become available, but “that’s something that’s far in the future. There’s nothing in the immediate horizon to expand service more than weekday and during (peak hours) to the airport with the 23,” Dombowsky said.
The 23 Lake Country bus was expanded in September to give 15-minute frequency intervals during the morning and afternoon peak periods.
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