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CURRENT ISSUES
My name is Lawrence Robert Jones. I am the
President of CAW Local 333 in Victoria. Firstly allow me to state that we fully support any additions or improvements to public transit service. However we have reservations on how this plan is to be implemented. Eight (8) new Nova buses, worth $4.3 Million, 100% financed by the Provincial Government, along with $850,000 for operating the service, will be granted to the Cowichan Valley Regional District. This service is to be operated by FirstCanada, a privately owned for-profit company, rather than by BCTransit in Victoria. There are many inequities in this new service. Let’s examine them. This new service solely targets approximately 300 Cowichan Valley commuters who presently drive their vehicles over the Malahat to work in Victoria Monday-Friday; no consideration is being given to rest of the Valley residents who would wish to travel to and from the Victoria region throughout the day including weekends. I invite you to “Google” www.busonline.ca The Service Plan intends to charge commuters between $6 and $8 each way, depending on where Valley residents board the bus. Additionally, they will be offering a choice of monthly passes of $150 or $200 per month and a $235 pass would grant commuters full access to the Victoria Regional Transit system. Currently a Valley resident can take transit from Mill Bay to Cowichan Lake and on to Youbou or north almost to Ladysmith for the single zone fare of $1.75. Those routes represent a far greater distance than the distance over the Malahat to the transit exchange in Langford. Similarly a Victoria transit user can go from beyond Sooke town center to downtown Victoria and out to the ferry terminal at Swartz Bay for $2.25, a distance far in excess of that from the Langford exchange over the Malahat to an exchange in Mill Bay. In an integrated service model, a Valley resident could pay $1.75 to Langford then pay $2.25 to board a Victoria Transit bus to travel anywhere in the system. Similarly a Victoria resident could do the same thing in reverse. A Cowichan resident could enjoy round-trip service to anywhere in the Victoria system as could a Victoria resident to Cowichan for a fare of only $4.00 each way, rather than the $8 proposed by the Plan. Nobody should have to purchase a $235.00 pass to commute between the Cowichan Valley and the Victoria Regional Transit Districts!! Shouldn’t commuters, willing to make one simple transfer, be able to travel to and from Victoria for the same price? Why can’t they? Let’s not forget that FirstCanada, leasing brand new coaches from BCTransit at no cost and funded for service to the tune of $850,000, is a P3, private “for-profit” company; $8 each way represents more profit. While we are naturally desirous of more public transit service, we believe that Cowichan Valley patrons (including commuters) should pay the same fares as anybody else. According to their Service Plan for the Malahat Connector, 6 of the 8 new buses (two held in reserve) will run to Victoria in 3 waves of 2 buses during the morning rush. These buses will then be stored in Victoria from approximately 9am until 5pm, and a van will take the 6 drivers and return them to Duncan. In the afternoon the van will transport 6 drivers back to Victoria and they will then take the commuters back to the Cowichan Valley during the afternoon rush. CVRT loses, at the very least, 2 hours for each of these 12 operators, plus the van driver’s time, for a total of 24 hours/day of non-productive paid employee time. Storage of these six buses equates to a further loss of 48 service-hours/days, in the middle of the day, when the Victoria Transit System could utilize this equipment, if we were to do the work. In addition to this loss of service, Cowichan Valley Transit would have no logistical support in Victoria for unplanned circumstances such as a driver becoming ill or assaulted, a breakdown or by having the Malahat blocked by an accident that closes the Highway and prevents the afternoon bus drivers in the van from reaching the buses in Victoria on time. Imagine the frustration of Valley commuters, waiting 1-2 hours for the bus drivers to reach Victoria to pick them up. This Service Plan needs another 1/2 hour in the oven! There is no economic or logistical basis for this service model. As a solution we suggest FirstCanada operate the new coaches throughout the Cowichan Valley and over the Malahat to meet and transfer passengers with the Victoria Transit system at the nearest convenient exchange. They would then be able to return in-service to Cowichan Valley bringing passengers from Victoria who want to travel up-island. Also FirstCanada could then operate a Cowichan Valley-Langford reduced schedule (eg. every two (2) hours) during the day thus giving both Victoria and Valley residents the opportunity to travel back and forth during that part of the day when these buses would otherwise be stored out-of-service in Victoria. This could be done at no cost for labour. Let’s not forget the 24 man-hours being wasted by bus drivers sitting in a van commuting to and from Victoria. There is another service plan to be examined. If Victoria Transit did the Commuter work their drivers could leave from Langford Transit Centre (LTC) in the early morning when no service is required and drive, in less than 20 minutes, to Mill Bay where we could rendezvous with the existing Cowichan Valley buses. BC Transit would then do the express “Malahat Connecter” trip to Victoria after which these buses could be placed into our Regional system. They could assist other city express runs and free up buses for servicing until the rush-hour return trips to Mill Bay. They could then return “in-service” to LTC, completely avoiding downtime while providing uninterrupted hours of revenue-generating transit service throughout the day. With this Victoria model, BC Transit’s Road Supervisors and Safety & Security Departments would be nearby to quickly deal with on-board/scheduling issues and, in the event of accidents or breakdowns, it would take less than 20 minutes to bring a bus from the Victoria Transit Centre (VTC) or Langford (LTC) to anywhere on the Malahat route. Maintenance repairs would be carried out by either VTC or LTC garages. Passenger stress due to delays would be minimized. There is a third Service option to be considered: The full integration of the Victoria and Cowichan Valley transit systems. Approximately 23 years ago this occurred in the Victoria region when it became obvious that the two suburban commuter companies were too small to meet the needs of the burgeoning populations in both their outlining communities. SouthWest Coach Lines (serving the Western Communities and Sooke) and Pacific Commuter (Sidney and the Saanich Peninsula) were merged into the Victoria Transit system and their employees were seamlessly dovetailed into the union’s seniority system. Considering that the residents of both Regional Transit systems are putting taxpayer money into the operating funds for this new service it would be a win-win scenario for all of us on either side of the “Hat”. I would like to thank the Cowichan Valley Regional Transit Committee and the residents of the Valley for granting this delegation the opportunity to present our submission for your consideration.
LR Jones, President Dated September 17, 2008 Call me with any questions cell 250-888-3222, office 250-384- 4423 Ext 102 or email me at lrjones@cawvidc.bc.ca
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