Tideways residents get their hourly bus service

BY WENDY ELLIOTT

welliott@kentvilleadvertiser.ca

NovaNewsNow.com

The Tideways Housing Co-operative and east end Wolfville are going to get their hourly bus service.

Eighteen Tideways residents attended the Sept. 16 Kings Transit board meeting to present a petition signed by over 180 Wolfville residents. Spokesman Sandy MacKinnon said there seems to be a hold-up around new schedules being printed, but the one-hour bus schedule should be in place by Oct. 15.

Town representative Bill Zimmerman suggested the transit service not hold up the return to service for Tideways until a new schedule was drawn up. He suggested a Xeroxed version for the next few weeks on the buses in the affected areas.

“The issue remains the increase in gas prices is attracting many more riders to the transit systems across the country. Kings Transit is no exception, but there still has not been recognition of this trend reflected in the funding decisions by the participating municipalities,” he noted.

“The failure to increase funding to Kings Transit this year is what precipitated the crisis that led to the Tideways experiment. Their latest reports show a significant increase in ridership in the last few months and that trend will likely continue. Kings Transit has to be properly funded for the system to work and that remains a concern,” MacKinnon added. “The system is still in a funding crisis that must be addressed.”

Wolfville town council expressed a unanimous motion asking Kings Transit to restore hourly service to a seniors’ housing development back in July.

Changing to a two-hour schedule from the original one-hour one upset Tideways residents and so did having to wait at the Baptist Church as opposed to the new downtown bus stop.

Residents made it clear they had moved to the housing co-op with the expectation of relying on the service. Over 20 residents use the service now.