The city's transit system will get a new home.
A "new and expanded" operations and maintenance facility was the centrepiece of $23 million worth of funding announced Tuesday by the three levels of government. The yard will also be capable of fueling buses with compressed natural gas. BC Transit is still in the process of finding a new location and designing the building but the intention is to have it completed by March 2019.
A portion of the money will also be used to buy two replacement handyDART buses - which cater to people who cannot use the conventional system - in 2017. BC Transit will be working with groups "to ensure all 13,000 hours of handyDART service available in the city is fully used."
"I have heard from seniors about the need for expanded handyDART service and I am proud we can deliver improved service as part of this package of transit enhancements," Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond said in a press release.
The city will also get a dozen new buses over three years to replace as many old ones in the fleet as part of a BC Transit province-wide plan to purchase 150 new buses at a cost of $68.7 million. The first two will arrive in December 2017.
A further $11.7 million will be spent province-wide on such technological improvements as close-circuit TVs "to improve the safety of passengers and drivers," GPS and automatic passenger counters.
Mayor Lyn Hall called the announcement "very significant" both in terms of what it will bring and the amount of money that will be spent.
"It means construction jobs, there's an economic component added to that," Hall said in reference to the new facility.
According to a presentation to city council in May, ridership has been on the decline. After peaking at slightly more than two million rides in 2013-14, it dropped by 155,006 over the next two years. A fare increase, which came into effect in January 2014, has been seen as the cause.
That same month, council endorsed a long-range plan for the service. An operational facility master plan was included in the short-term strategies related to infrastructure, as was an expanded transit hub in the downtown core.
Of the $23 million for the project, the federal government will cover $9.5 million, the province $8.3 million and the city, $5.2 million. It was one of 11 projects unveiled province-wide.
As for the purchases of the buses, $34.4 million will come from Ottawa, $22.9 from Victoria and the remaining $11.4 million from the municipalities. To the new technology, the federal government will contribute $5.9 million, the provincial government $3.9 million and the municipalities $1.6 million.
