SUMMERSIDE, P.E.I. - The owner of Summerside Transit is willing to help the city grow its transit system, he just needs the okay from council.
“We’ve been running this one bus, one route, since 2010/ 2011,” said transit operator Mike Cassidy.
By comparison, Charlottetown’s transit service, also owned by Cassidy, has grown from four buses in 2005 to 12.
The capital city has just applied for $20.5 million from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program (ICIP) for a fleet of electric buses.
Summerside Transit, on the other hand, has remained the same for almost 10 years. It consists of one bus that runs one route – a loop around Summerside connecting the waterfront Holland College campus with Credit Union Place, the uptown mall and the hospital.
Cassidy said the Summerside service is “in its infancy stage,” even though it’s been around for a while.
Summerside city councillor Justin Doiron said the appetite is there more public transit.
“Slemon Park is quite energized about getting better bus service,” he said. “For me, personally, I found during campaigning that residents felt the schedule was lacking, unpredictable and inadequate.”
Cassidy, a 14-year veteran of the transit business, sees a need to connect Slemon Park to the city, and is willing to run a pilot project to see if folks want more bus service around the city. He wants to know if residents would use a wider-spread bus service available from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week.
“That’s how you have to start these transit systems. You start small and you grow,” he said. “Frequency and coverage are the two components to make a system grow.”
Cassidy was careful to add that it’s up to the city to decide the best time to expand the service.
Doiron said the transit situation has come up in informal discussions, but hasn’t been an agenda item yet.
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