Put brakes on transit redesign plan : Union
Posted Nov 22, 2016 01:05:51 PM.
Last Updated Nov 22, 2016 01:11:10 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – The president of the Amalgamated Transit Union is adding his voice to the chorus of people calling for the transit re-development plan to be put on hold.
Ken Wilson is pushing to pause the review to give councillors better data on better routes, schedules and passenger counts–something he has been saying for the past year.
“Now we have It’s More Than Buses and a few new councillors echoing my concerns back from a year ago,” Wilson tells NEWS 95.7. “It comes back to the same old thing. We have to look at turnout.”
He says you only have to look as far as transit’s own scheduling department to see why there are problems with the system.
“I started here in 1999 and I’ve seen the scheduling department morph to 20 people in total. It used to be 3. So, we have all of these scheduling experts now, but the product is no different on the road, and it’s ebcause the schedulers don’t use the buses.”
It’s More Than Buses is calling for outside consultants to be brought in to do the study, but Wilson says it can be done internally if all of the stakeholders are brought into the discussions.
“I believe Halifax Transit, along with the union and the operators who understand the service, can maybe work together on this and figure out a solution.”
The Moving Froward Together transit redesign plan will be brought to regional council this afternoon.
