Surrey protesters want a better transit system
Posted February 26, 2013 7:34 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SURREY (NEWS1130) – Protesters gathered at Central City demanding a better transit system.
Surrey Citizen Transportation Initiative organizer Steve Burke says the city is severely under served. “Buses and HandyDart are really the main crisis areas right now and we look down the long term future as light rail as being a component to the system.”
His group crunched some numbers and discovered there is only one bus for every 4,000 people, which is less than other places around the Lower Mainland.
With the population growing, he says the problem will only get worse. He is encouraging anyone who wants to see changes to the system, to get local politicians on board.
News1130 spoke with transit users at Surrey Central to get their thoughts on the current service.
Some folks say they’d like a faster, efficient and reliable system.
Mary-Ann is tired of waiting more than half an hour for a bus. “It’s very frustrating, sometimes it (bus) doesn’t even come on time, it’s either too early or too late, you can’t always trust transit,” she says.
She thinks transportation planners should do a review of the whole transit system.
“The smaller routes, the buses take longer so it’s like an hour wait or half an hour wait and sometimes, that’s pretty bad,” adds Gwynevere, a rider who calls for increased frequency.
Brian doesn’t think he gets what he pays for. “It’s kind of disappointing that our passes keep going up but the levels of service keep going down in some ways,” he argues.
Other riders think having a rapid transit line linking town centres would make life a whole lot easier.
Some say the system is “average” or “decent” but “there’s always room for improvement.”
