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.

CommentsAdd a comment

May 12, 2008 at 3:35 pm

Why not try Mitchell’s plan for 6 months. Perhaps a bus transit lottery would work. It seems to work for sports. With the high cost of gas, and diesel fuel people have to have an alternative to driving. I use the bus system, and enjoy it very much.

May 12, 2008 at 4:53 pm

It’s a lovely idea to promote free transit. CBC radio reported that to implement would cost 18 million over two years (new buses, etc.,) and Mitchell reports that it’s all about where a government puts its spending priorities. He doesn’t, however, give any indication of where he’d cut spending.

The devil is always in the details.

Geof Harries

May 16, 2008 at 7:51 am

When you consider the long-term positive impacts on the Yukon environment, $8.6 million seems very worthwhile. We’ll never get a lot of people riding their bikes in the winter - it’s a really tough slog - so promoting and funding public transit is the most logical step for government to take.

Bob Jones

May 16, 2008 at 4:43 pm

Why would the Goverment of the Yukon do a move that would benefit all Yukoners? Nope, because its a plan that dosen’t cost tax payers more money. It won’t work because the goverment will have to pay. In todays terms it dosen’t work that way. No shortage of ploys for Carbon Taxes, more taxes, no solutions. Blah blah blah////////

This town should be re-named NOSOLUTIONS/TAXGRABShorse......

sean kingscote

May 16, 2008 at 5:38 pm

I believe that with Federal transfer payments being as high as they are, the territorial government could allocate funds for an initiative like this. Gas prices are not going down anytime soon and the state of the environment shows that someone has to think outside the box and come up with alternatives to single occupant vehicles clogging whitehorse roadways. Kudos Arthur, great idea!

Michael Aeberhardt

May 21, 2008 at 9:13 pm

To suggest that Yukoners should be entitled to “free” transit is a clear example of an overinflated right to self-entitlement! At the end of the day it will be <40,000 Yukoners and millions of non-Yukoners who subsidize such an ill conceived idea. The Yukon does not have pollution issues like other Canadian locations and they certainly don’t have traffic congestion!

The outside of the box environmental solution is for Yukoners to take the initiative themselves and carpool, bike, walk or increase their use of transit without expecting a freebie?

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