Mitchell’s vision of transit would cost $8.6 M: city

Yukon Liberal Party Leader Arthur Mitchell wants public transportation in Whitehorse to expand and be free of charge for its riders.

“We need to start doing more than just paying lip service to our environment; it’s time to take the lead and actually replace rhetoric with action,” Mitchell said Friday.

The previous Thursday, Mitchell provided a notice of motion in the legislative assembly urging the Yukon government to upgrade the city’s bus service and abolish fares.

According to city manager Dennis Shewfelt, the cost of implementing a plan would more than triple the cost of providing public transportation and require an additional five buses.

“This came up two or three months ago; they said, ‘what would it take?’ and we provided them some of the issues that would surround that, obviously one of them is just the rolling stock,” said Shewfelt.

“We don’t have (enough) buses in the fleet to do that.”

Under Mitchell’s proposal, there would be an increase in the number of buses and in their hours of operation. The bus schedule would run on a 15-minute cycle during morning and late-afternoon peak hours.

The goals would be to reduce people’s reliance on vehicles, thereby lowering carbon emissions, and increase the ridership on public transportation.

Currently, providing bus service in the capital costs $2.4 million each year, of which the city recoups approximately $600,000 in fares.

Shewfelt told the Star that a significant amount of that expense is covered by the Comprehensive Municipal Grant from the territorial government.

To break even, Shewfelt said, ridership would have to increase four-fold.

Under the new fare scheme, which went into effect affect April 1, single fares are now $2.50 and passes range from $26 a month for seniors to $62 a month for adults.

To implement Mitchell’s proposal, Shewfelt said, would cost upwards of $8.6 million annually.

He also noted that a new downtown-Canada Games Centre loop will begin in July, with a 20-minute frequency. This is to be a six-month pilot project.