Bus fares for the Squamish-Whistler commuter are being hiked from $5 to $8 a ride as of Nov. 1 and the entire service is in jeopardy after some members of Whistler council expressed an unwillingness to continue funding the route.
Whistler's share of the commuter service's cost - about $190,000 per year - is only secure through the end of December and council will have to vote to approve any funding for 2011 during the upcoming municipal budget deliberations.
At Tuesday's (Sept. 21) regular council meeting, Mayor Ken Melamed said he doesn't support the continued funding of the service, which he essentially sees as a subsidy to a community outside Whistler. He argued that the service should be discontinued before the ski season begins.
"This represents a subsidy from Whistler taxpayers that is not only unjustified at this time but is also inequitable with our partner to the north," Melamed said, referring to the fact that the local share of the Pemberton-Whistler commuter service is funded by Pemberton alone.
"I think we need to focus on our own transit system," Melamed said.
The rest of council, however, voted to institute fare increases for the service and send a strong message to the District of Squamish that they'd like to see the district cover the full local costs of the commuter route. Melamed said his "suspicion" is that Squamish will not pick up Whistler's share of providing the service.
As of Nov. 1 the cash fare will increase from $5 to $8 per ride. A book of 10 fare tickets will jump from $45 to $72 and a monthly pass will be $232, up from $145.
The Squamish-Whistler commuter was first introduced as a winter-only service in 2005, co-funded by Whistler and Squamish. In 2008, B.C. Transit agreed to fund about 47 per cent of the service cost, as per its cost-sharing agreement on all transit systems in the province. The remaining 53 per cent is currently shared equally between Whistler and Squamish.
Between 75 and 120 people currently use the system each day, said Joe Paul, the municipality's manager of development services.
