Castlegar Mayor pleased with growth of West Kootenay Transit
By Nelson Daily Staff
While Nelson Mayor Deb Kozak calls for a “Regional Transit Task Force” to spearhead improvements and to use BC Transit dollars more effectively, the Chair of the West Kootenay Transit Committee is quite happy with the direction local transit is heading.
Castlegar Mayor Lawrence Chernoff said during an interview with The Nelson Daily he’s very pleased with the improvements to transit in the West Kootenay.
“My thought is transit in the West Kootenay is going extremely well over the last couple of years,” Chernoff told The Nelson Daily from his Mayor’s office in Castlegar.
“Ridership has grown and I think there are a lot of positives and the future looks good for all the West Kootenays.”
Kozak made comments to a local radio station regarding the task force in light of the three-year funding to BC Transit made by the government.
Chernoff has his own concerns with the funding freeze, but that is a problem West Kootenay Transit may have do deal with down the road.
“I think it’s important that we proceed with the concept plan and we follow the concept plan and it’s hitting well into all facets of West Kootenay transit,” Chernoff explained.
“I think, and I’m not speaking for the Mayor of Nelson, but I think she’s thinking of broader rural BC and not this part of BC.”
West Kootenay Transit has seen many changes since July of 2013.
There was the creation of the Connector runs between Nelson and Trail as well as connections at Balfour for Kaslo ridership.
This past weekend saw more improvements with the implementation of Saturday service between Nelson, Castlegar and Trail; an additional run to both Balfour and Slocan City as well as Saturday service in Castlegar and two-day services to Grandview Seniors home development, also in the Sunflower City.
“We at West Kootenay Transit have a great partnership with BC Transit and we’ve been able to continue to move forward,” Chernoff said.
“It’s all fitting together relatively well with great cooperation from BC Transit,” Chernoff added.
“We’ve instituted things that took a little time but are now in place and ridership continues to grow.”
And Chernoff is excited to announce the public can ride West Kootenay Transit for “free” on Wednesday, April 22.
“This will let people know what we’re doing with transit in all of the communities.”
