District of Squamish is planning to re-instate the Route 5 bus service to south park areas of Squamish this summer and reinstate free summer weekend transit on this route.
District staff is planning to re-instate the Route 5 starting in mid-June 2021 with the addition of two new stops at Squamish Adventure Centre and Valley Drive, and relocation of the Shannon Falls stop to Darrell Bay.
However, buses wont ply on this route from 2:45 to 6:20 pm due to the lack of available buses during this peak time. The route will resume service at 6:20 pm and run until 8:30 pm on weekdays and Sundays and 10:20 pm on Friday and Saturday nights.
“The Route 5 provides an important connection to outdoor recreation opportunities that we now know are important during the pandemic as well as service for employees working in this area,” the staff says in a report to council.
Council will discuss this report in an upcoming meeting tomorrow.
Funds to run the Route 5 were included in the 2021 budget, and the Transit Safe Restart Fund is also available to the district to offset lower fare revenue due to reduced ridership throughout the transit system.
The district began providing free summer weekend transit service for all routes in 2019 with the support of the Sea to Sky Gondola, and council made the decision to continue the free weekends in 2020 even though the Gondola was not able to contribute due to a challenging year.
The free summer weekend service begins mid-June and ends after the Labour Day weekend.
The Sea to Sky Gondola is not able to support the service this year, although the gondola has indicated it would support such a service in the future.
The district had also signed a letter of agreement with BC Transit to expand the Squamish Transit service by 1,500 service hours and one bus this year. However, the delay in provincial budget means this service won’t be available this summer, though the staff will update council in this summer on the expansion.
