City of Powell River’s Zunga Bus project is slated to carry on beyond its scheduled ending on December 31.
At the December 14 committee of the whole meeting, chief administrative officer Russell Brewer said staff was looking for direction to continue the pilot project through to the end of April 2022. He said there was also a recommendation for a letter to be sent to the provincial ministry of transportation and infrastructure advocating for on-demand transit funding.
Brewer said there were two allocations of funding for the project. One was from the city’s climate action reserve of $170,000 and a second allocation of about $130,000 that was intended to provide funding for additional bus capacity, a second bus, as well as an expanded service area and hours. He said, however, it has been a challenge securing transit drivers, such that the city has not been able to get that second bus into service.
Brewer said the pilot was initially scheduled to wrap up at the end of December, due in part to federal funding that was being provided for the project. He said the federal government has committed to extending its share of funding should the pilot be extended. He said it’s about $5,000 per month, to $20,000, which would allow the pilot to continue until the end of April 2022.
To this point, about $163,000, or 52 per cent of allocated funding, has been expended up to the end of November and it’s expected to be about $178,000 to the end of the year, leaving about $143,000 of allocated funding unspent.
Brewer said assuming a transit driver for the second bus can be found, the city could run the project until the end of April with the funding it has. He said if the city still has trouble finding additional drivers, and just the one bus is running, the pilot could carry on until the end of June 2022.
Staff will be bringing a detailed report on the pilot on-demand busing project to the February 15, 2022, committee of the whole meeting, according to Brewer.
“That report will allow you to consider your options with respect to on-demand transit,” said Brewer.
He said BC Transit is still working on feasibility studies and the crown corporation is intending to initiate some pilot projects in 2022. He said those may not start until summer or September.
“Partly, what staff is hoping is if the pilot was to be extended, it would provide an opportunity for us to perhaps bridge into a pilot with BC Transit, concurrent with, hopefully, some extra funding, and changing our transit agreement to incorporate some on-demand considerations,” said Brewer.
“So that’s the purpose of this report, whether council wants to consider extending the pilot or not. Staff is seeking direction, given the unallocated funding that is unspent to date to carry on with the pilot project.”
Mayor Dave Formosa said there is no doubt the project is extremely popular. He said completing the original scope of work makes sense using existing funds.
Formosa said, however, that going door-to-door hurts taxi business. He said the on-demand transit service was originally intended to be a bus route on demand, not a door-to-door service.
Formosa also said when he operated the handyDART bus service, finding drivers was not a problem.
Brewer said the transit driver shortage is province wide.
Councillor Rob Southcott asked if the Zunga Bus could substitute for some of the regularly scheduled buses. He said he wants to see the bus utilized to its maximum potential.
Brewer said the city is a partner in its agreements with BC Transit, so if there are visions and goals for the transit system, the city has to advocate for them. He said there is an opportunity when doing a service plan review in 2022 to advocate for some changes.
Councillor George Doubt asked about the second bus. Sustainability planner Ana Lukyanova said the bus is in the community and it’s costing about $2,000 per month for the lease. She said because there is no driver, it has not been utilized.
Doubt asked if there was any reason to believe a driver would become available in the new year. Brewer said given the last three or four months of trying to find a driver, there’s no guarantee. Doubt said if the recommendation passes, he doesn’t think a bus driver will be found.
Doubt said if council agreed to extend the pilot using the existing funding, it will continue through April 20, 2022. He said he doesn’t think, without the second bus, there will be service to Wildwood, which is something he desires.
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said she is in favour of extending the pilot to April 30. She said the project did not get underway until February of this year so there hasn’t been a full year of data in the Westview service area.
“There’s a lot of excitement about the opportunities that on-demand transit offers,” said Leishman. “A lot of my colleagues in the BC municipal climate leadership council are super excited about on-demand transit and they are all bugging me for information.
"Moving forward, I think it’s great we were one of the first ones to do a pilot. If we can expand it for the next few months and get the report back with fulsome data, and talk with BC Transit about incorporating it into our service to do a collaborative thing, I think it’s going to be the next phase of transit in British Columbia.”
Lukyanova said that currently, about 60 per cent of the rides are shared, meaning there is more than one person on the bus. She said this means that service for riders is not necessarily direct.
The committee gave direction to staff to carry on with the project.
