Better Island Transit
Islanders Deserve Convenient and Affordable Public Intercity Transportation
Vancouver Island currently has infrequent and expensive intercity public transit that serves a tiny portion of demand for a few communities. This is inconvenient for both Islanders and tourists, dealing with increased traffic, roadway congestion, accidents, and pollution. While work is being done to reintroduce the E&N Rail Corridor, this is not likely to occur on a short timeframe.
Better Island Transit is lobbying governments to implement frequent and affordable bus service with low fares throughout the Island. Our first step is to increase the frequency of the existing bus service between Victoria to Duncan. Currently there are only 4 daily commuter trips along this corridor with one-way fares costing $10. The Sooke-Victoria route offering similarly length trips at frequent (43 per day) and affordably ($3/trip) carries over 20% of peak-period trips. By investing in intercity transit the Duncan-Victoria corridor could see similar levels of use.
The BC Ministry of Transportation and Transit budgeted $162 million to expand the Malahat Highway through Goldstream Park to add safety barriers along 1.5km of road. This project has been put on hold due to opposition from First Nations and environmental organizations. Investing in frequent and affordable intercity transit along the corridor would provide more safety gains and larger total benefits for less cost. To review our studies on the benefits of intercity transit on Vancouver Island please visit our ‘Reports’ section below.
Every year the province spends hundreds of dollars per capita on highways, dozens of dollars per capita on local transit services, and almost nothing on intercity and interregional transit that would connect communities. Reallocating a small portion of the province’s highway budget to intercity buses would have an outsized positive affect on our transportation system.
Further initiatives will support bus service to destinations such as Courtenay, Campbell River, Port Alberni, Ucluelet, and Tofino along with potential daily service to Port McNeil and Port Hardy. We hope our initiatives will lead to improvements in intercity bus service throughout the province. Better Island Transit is a proud member of the Public Transit Alliance of BC, a coalition of over 20 organizations advocating for improved transit across the province, focusing on a public intercity transit network.
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