Transit Expansion Get Green Light

Vernon council has approved expansion of the transit service that will add seven-thousand service hours a year, and add a new route.

Mayor Akbal Mund says the frequency will be improved on some routes.

“It’s a tough question to say how will people notice it because unless you use transit on a consistent basis, you probably won’t notice it, but if you use transit, you will notice it,” Mund tells Kiss FM.

The improvements will cost an extra 419-thousand dollars a year.

Councillor Bob Spiers is concerned about the impact to taxpayers.

“Taxpayers already spend $1.365 million for transit. This is going to come up in the budget discussions,” said Spiers.

The new route, starting in April, will run on a loop from downtown to North Vernon and back.

“It’s actually quite a nice loop that it does. It covers from downtown to Walmart and back, and it will be a frequent route, and you can see that route being done in 15 minutes probably,” says Mund.

Meantime, the City of Vernon will look at changing one of its bus routes to make it more accessible for hundreds more residents.

Jim Kanester  — who uses transit daily — says making a slight adjustment to the Bella Vista route would allow service every 35 minutes.

“I don’t see any logical reason why we couldn’t do something about this. My simple proposal would have helped many residents to gain mobility and improved the economy in Vernon for shopping, and for the needed low cost workers that we have, because they have to get to to work,” Kanester told council early in Monday’s meeting.

Later on in the meeting, Councillor Scott Anderson led a motion to look into adding a loop on Allenby Way and Heritage Drive that will address Kanester’s concerns.