It's a 'yes!'

By Nadine Armstrong

The Hants Journal/NovaNewsNow.com

It may have been touch and go for a while, but all three councils, -- Windsor, Hantsport, and West Hants -- have voted in favour of extending the trial period for Kings Transit service in Hants. The decision was based primarily on the recent increase in ridership, which rose from a low of 1,331 in December to 1,885 in March. “This is a phenomenal turn around,” said KT general manager Ron Mullins.

During his presentation to Joint Council, Thursday evening, April 24, Mullins outlined the results of a recent survey that addressed some of the issues with the current service. The main recommendations made by the Hants County ridership included an increase in frequency, later Saturday service and a linear Windsor-Brooklyn run.

That route was dealt with by cutting out the Gypsum Mines portion of the Brooklyn route, which to date has had very poor ridership. Saturday service will extend until 6 p.m., but frequency remained on the table for discussion.

The CAOs and Mullins had discussed an express service from Brooklyn to Wolfville run during peak hours during a previous meeting. And, although possible to create a one-hour route, councillors were concerned it would leave too many riders in the dust. After careful consideration they gave it thumbs down. Mullins pointed out that transit service always involves a trade off. “To have an express run would mean eliminating stops during peak hours,” he said. “What it really comes down to for you, is who you want to service most and when.”

Future possibilities

That isn’t to say an express run or even a feeder service couldn’t be part of future plans for West Hants, but council agreed it was not a viable option at this point.

“The only real solution to meet all the needs of our riders is to have more buses and we can’t go there yet,” said Windsor Mayor Anna Allen.

KT board chairman Kings County Coun. Barry Peterson attended the session and said that an additional bus is something they could look at further down the line. “You do need more buses but that’s the easy part.”

He said it is the cost of drivers, fuel and insurance that makes any additions expensive.

Peterson pointed out, however, that Kentville had experienced similar growing pains when transit service was first introduced there. “If you want this to work, then it will work.” Peterson added that West Hants has been the fastest-growing route KT to date.

Now that the council has experienced the upside of the ‘use it or lose it’ equation, Hantsport Mayor Wayne Folker said they need to give the public a show of faith. “If we’re going to get a commitment from the public, we need to make a commitment ourselves and give them the message that this isn’t going to be killed in three months.”

Give it best shot

West Hants Warden Richard Dauphinee agreed, “we have to give this our best shot. And how can we say we’ve done that without a fair trial?”

West Hants Coun. Randy Matheson said they should give the service 150 percent support. “I think, with the increase in gas prices, we are going to see a crisis situation very soon,” he said. At the same time, Matheson noted it is time to leave the nitty-gritty decision making up to the professionals. “They’ve heard our input and I think it’s time we let them go back and do their job.”

Kings Transit and the CAOs will return to the drawing board and create a fixed schedule to present to Joint Council next month. The motion was passed to extend the trial run until the next fiscal year, with a three-month exit clause of June of that year.

Until then, council has agreed to leave financial percentages paid by each municipality until next month when the new routes are set. There will be no express service and routes will run every 90 minutes to two hours. Additional stops added to the new schedule will include the industrial parks, King’s-Edgehill, and Gladys Manning and Kendal lanes.