By Justine Kelsie

Rural bus pilot project being considered

Mar 16, 2018 | 10:17 AM

City Councillors will look at signing a letter of support for a project that would see buses travel from five surrounding communities into the city.

Applications are due at the end of the month for the Rural Transportation Pilot Program. If letters are approved by all parties involved, and the application goes through, the Alberta government would agree to pay the operational costs for the two-year project with a maximum of $300,000 per each individual service.  

There would be no capital funding provided,  which means communities would have to provide buses from ones they already own or purchase new ones.

City Assistant Transit Manager Steve Harvard says right now, they are in phase one which is letters of support and the application process.

“The next step, once our application has been processed and approved by the province, would be finalizing our services and go out to each individual community with a draft service plan and ask them what their ideas and opinions are. We are working with the county in the initial draft, to begin with, so they have been in discussion with all of these communities as well,” said Harvard following a city committee meeting.

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He says this program will involve two corridors of the city with Sexsmith and Clairmont to the north, and to the west, Hythe, Beaverlodge, and Wembley.

In the second phase, communities would look at their inventory and decide what they would start the services with.

During the meeting, Councillors showed interest in a bus connection between Grande Cache and the city as well. Although the conversation in this application process was only for communities within 50 kilometres of Grande Prairie, Harvard said he will be putting that idea on the province’s radar.

“The hardest part is trying to make sure the level of service meets the expectations of each community. Yet it is realistic as it is put together. Expectations sometimes far exceed the available resources.”

The information is set to be presented to the County of Grande Prairie at their next council meeting on March 26. The city will vote on the letter of support at their next council meeting on the same day.