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Transit Budget Approved

By 250 News

Wednesday, February 11, 2009 06:10 PM

Prince George, B.C. -   Public Transit in Prince George wasn’t going to be asked to trim it’s budget, at least not if Councillor’s Murry Krause and Don Bassermann had their way. “It’s an air quality issue” says Bassermann. “This is one Councillor who won’t be looking to trim the Transit budget. We must encourage people to use public transit and get away from driving their cars” says Krause.
The budget received unanimous approval.
The transit budget for 2009 predicts net operation costs of $1.8 million. 
Manager Bill Gaal says there is a request for increased service, that would provide some “express” service between some locations. That enhancement would cost $85 thousand more this year, but add a full quarter million to the budget for the full year of 2010. That enhancement  would add three busses and 7200 hours of service. That request has been deferred to a later date.
As for the regular transit budget, the financial targets suggest revenue will be about $1.5 million in 2009,  That number isn’t out of line. In 2004, total revenue was about $730 thousand, and last year, the actual revenue was about $1.4 million.
The University route is extremely popular “There are times when some people have to wait for another bus heading up the hill” says Manager Bill Gaal.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 06:10 PM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Comment Posted by: Green on February 11 2009 6:52 PM
why not add another 25cents to the fare... it might cover the expansion and the shortfall
Comment Posted by: jonnypg on February 11 2009 11:02 PM
Hey Krause,How do you get to work!
Comment Posted by: lifesucks on February 12 2009 6:40 AM
I double that any of the city councillors take the public transit. I know Krause for sure does not. How can one use it if it is not even provided to you? When they had a bus here it came at 7:30 a.m. and again at 4:30 p.m. when you work at 6a.m. and home at 3:30 I really do not think you can take transit,driving yourself is your only choice.
Comment Posted by: duffer on February 12 2009 8:56 AM
They could trim off a lot of money if they would use smaller buses similar to shuttle buses that run out of airports to hotels. I have said this in the past and someone else mentioned it in another story on Opinion 250 the other day. Those small buses will carry the ten people you see on the large buses every day. They would be cheaper to buy, operate, insure, etc. but our powers to be still think we are a large city. We are not. There is no service where I live either and I am in city limits.
Comment Posted by: Harbinger on February 12 2009 5:39 PM
If we give away our big buses we will never get them back.