The Camosun Express, a free shuttle service for Camosun students and staff that goes between the Lansdowne and Interurban campuses and to the West Shore, won’t be running for the fall 2021 semester.
Camosun College manager of sustainability, transportation and parking Shannon Craig says the decision was made because of the environmental and financial sustainability of the service.
“We looked at September to December before [the] pandemic, and then we looked at the year previously, as well,” she says. “Ridership was low overall and then the cost of the service is quite high. Camosun is in a sensitive financial position, and so we have to be really careful and intentional about these choices. It always impacts students, as well.”
When Camosun started its last contract with Wilson’s Transportation, the company that supplies the shuttle, the college had hoped to have a zero-emission, fully electric bus for students and staff to use. Although they did have an electric bus for the Westshore route that ran to the campuses twice a day, the bus that ran between campuses the rest of the time was fuelled by diesel.
“When you have some runs that are empty, or you have some runs with one or two students, that has a big impact,” says Craig. “We have to be really cognizant of the true impact of the service. Looking forward, we hope to have something that’s fully electric. We can be really proud about having a bus that’s running between campuses that way.”
But the issue is that the larger the electric vehicle, the more powerful the charge has to be.
“There was an issue with the time it took to hold the charge,” says Craig. “When you’re running between campuses, there was just not enough time. It would have to sit and charge for a certain amount of time, and so it just wasn’t feasible with the specific bus we had. That being said, there are technologies that are improving all the time. BC Transit has some electric buses. This is just the way of the world, and looking forward, I would assume that we’ll see this more and more.”
Having a different type of bus—one that could hold its charge longer—would be integral to running the service going forward, says Craig. Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) external executive Puneet Kaur says that the CCSS understands that there’s a need for the service, but also understands that there is great financial pressure across the college at the moment as it recovers from the lower enrolment numbers it saw during COVID.
“We are hoping to see the service get back soon as things normalize, because it helps students,” says Kaur.
For students who need to commute between campuses at a low cost in the fall, BC Transit will be going back to regular pre-pandemic fleet numbers on route 8, says Craig.
Correction: This story previously identified Shannon Craig with her previous job title at Camosun. We apologize for the mistake.