I can’t believe that BC Transit thinks that adding late-night bus service is a good idea. I think it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. Who’s taking a bus as late as 2:45 am? Why add this service to the schedule when there’s never been a demand before? What person is taking a bus that late anyway? Students and those who don’t own a car? There’s always a taxi to hire, or they can walk if they don’t have enough money to pay a cabbie.
Just kidding: myself and other transit users have stressed the need for late-night bus service over the years, only to have our voices land on deaf ears.
When BC Transit announced that service in the Victoria area will be extended an hour later, my first thought was that transit riders can stay out to midnight before turning into pumpkins. However, it is a CBC article from August 22 that leaves me scratching my head when BC Transit chair Susan Brice says that “late-night service has been well-received, but it needed to be extended in order to meet the needs of patrons and people working in the downtown area.” According to the current transit schedule, the last bus to Langford on a Friday leaves downtown at 11:01 pm. When did BC Transit decide that late-night service was needed? Because most of us who take transit know there’s been this pothole in the middle of the road progressively growing, waiting for something to be done. Where has BC Transit been hiding all this time?
Also, why are those who live and work in Sidney and on the Saanich Peninsula not included in this extended late-night service? Langford is almost as far away as Sidney is.
The decision to wait to add late-night service to the Sidney area is a disservice to those who live or work there. However, at least for now they are starting to fill in the hole in the road. My hope is that those who live and work on the routes that have the new extended schedule will appreciate what they have.
When I read that transit was going to add weekend late-night service as late as 2:45 am, I was skeptically optimistic. My first thought was that it must be some sort of joke and the bus passengers are the butt of it.a
Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised while previewing the upcoming transit schedule to see that the new schedule will not only extend for over an hour past 11:01 pm but also run every half hour to 2:45 am on Friday and Saturday nights.
Don’t get me wrong—I am still skeptical. Is this a permanent addition to the schedule, or will it end when classes are not in session? Although I am all for the Friday and Saturday extended service BC Transit has put on select routes, I am waiting for the proverbial axe to drop, where it’s announced that late-night bus service will be discontinued because of the lack of ridership.
Will we learn one night that this late-night service was a fantasy? If I sound pessimistic, I am. As a transit rider, I’ve been waiting for years for late-night bus service. So is this a tease playing to our desperate need to accept this good news as gold? Or will we wake up only to find an old man behind a curtain pretending to be a wizard?