EDITOR,This summer we will be the closest we have ever been to having regional transit in the Sea to Sky Corridor. From Aug. 12 to Sept. 11 there will be a trial of late-night service between Pemberton and Whistler.
The No. 98 Squamish Commuter and the No. 99 Pemberton Commuter are operated by different municipal partners. They print different schedules. They are on different website pages. They both travel on Highway 99 and meet in Whistler. Together, they could form a regional transit service between Squamish and Pemberton.
You can already travel from Squamish to Pemberton or Pemberton to Squamish in the morning. After changing buses in Whistler, the trip is only one hour, 45 minutes either way. Now there is a return trip in each direction.
At night it will take about two hours to travel from Squamish to Pemberton and one hour, 30 minutes to travel from Pemberton to Squamish. For the month of August there will be two trips in each direction every day.
It only takes a little imagination to see that the Squamish Commuter that arrives in Whistler at 2:30 and leaves again at 4:45 has enough time to go to Pemberton and back. By adding two hours of service to the two existing routes, we could have morning, afternoon and evening service in both directions, between Squamish and Pemberton, every day.
That would not compare with the 15 buses each day that connect the 1,800 people of Lions Bay with Caulfeild Village, Horseshoe Bay and Vancouver. It would be a good place to start though.
The Squamish Commuter is scheduled to cease operating on Sept. 30. For now, the late-night service to Pemberton is only temporary.
B.C. Transit seems to be unable to plan and operate public transit in the Sea to Sky Corridor. To the south of Squamish is West Vancouver. They have the oldest continuously operating municipal transit system in North America. They celebrate their first century in 2012.
West Vancouver Transit is independent from TransLink. They are the people who operate 19 buses to Lions Bay on Friday, nine on Sunday and 15 the rest of the week.
If West Vancouver Transit can operate 15 buses per day on the first 15 kilometres of the Sea to Sky Highway, perhaps they are the people we should be talking to about operating public transit on the rest of the highway.
If you want to show your support for public transit in the Sea to Sky Corridor, visit Pemberton Whistler Squamish Bus on Facebook.Murray GambleSquamish
