A fourth bus is coming to the City of Merritt

MERRITT – Another bus is coming to the City of Merritt.

“We are excited about it, we are proud of it, but we recognize this is one area that was pretty glaringly obvious that was a problem for those who rely on the service, so hopefully the additional expenditure will make a difference,” said Chief Administrative Officer, Sean Smith.

With the three current buses clocking around 7000 hours revenue hours total, Smith said it was crucial to get the fourth bus in the City.

“Every time we end up looking at some sort of analysis for our transit system, people are surprised to see the ridership numbers that we have here. We run a pretty strong service for the size of the community that we have. Recognizing that everyone who uses it wants it to be stronger and those who don’t actually use it also do see the benefits in making sure that people have an opportunity to get around through the transit system.”

In adding another bus, the maintenance problems that have plagued the current buses shouldn’t be as costly to the residents needing to take transit.

“The numbers that we are seeing really indicated that we need to have a fourth bus among our rotation, which will allow for us to continue service even if one bus needs to be in for maintenance at any given time. We did have a fair number of maintenance concerns over the course of the last year, there were times when we had all three of the buses out and that really impacts the people that rely on the service. The hope is by adding in that fourth bus, that we will be able to provide a more consistent reliable service.”

Adding in another bus, will increase the annual cost to the City by $35,822, bringing the total cost of all four up to $191,200 annually.

While all the final details are being figured out, officials aren’t too sure when the bus will be up and running.

“I don’t have a specific answer when the fourth bus will be here I think we are still liaising with transit on to what that process will look like.”

The decision to add the fourth bus was decided upon unanimously at the last council meeting on January 10.