Halifax bus route changes most drastic in 30 years

Regular transit users will notice changes on morethan a dozen bus routes in Halifaxon Monday.

"This is a lot of change,Ithink the biggest change all at once in 30 years,"says Patricia Hughes, Halifax Transit's manager of planning and scheduling. She was handing out information to passengers about the new schedules and route changes Friday.

Hughes said it's part of a move to a transfer-basedsystem that should speed up the routes that travelbetween the main transit hubs.

"We're consolidating to remove redundancy, sowe'll be able to offer more frequency so people canrely on them," said Hughes.

"There will also be smaller routes that connect into them."

Many of the changes are on routes that run between the Lacewood Terminal in Clayton Parkand south-end Halifax and are heavily used bystudents and people who work at the hospitals anduniversities.

Patrick Rooney regularly uses the bus stop next to theStudent Union Building on the Dalhousie University campus.

He said students should be OKwith the changes as long as theyare available on mobile transit apps.

"If I don't know where the route is, I'll just look it up on myphone and I'll see which ones are close by," said Rooney.

"And the bus drivers here are pretty friendly."

Halifax Transit does plan to put up signs and provide route information on the university campuses.

One of the busiest routes in the system, the 52 Crosstown, is now the 3 Crosstown.Some of the stops in Burnside and BayersLake have been removed.

Felicia Harvey, a Dartmouth transit user who frequentlyuses the Highfield Terminal, thinks the changes will improve the system, especially for people in north-end Dartmouth.

"Going out to Bayers Lake before was insanely difficult because you could never rely on the time for it," she said.

"So the change does help that."

But Dawn Marks, who regularly gets on the buses atthe Lacewood Terminal, thinks the changes will confuse seniors and she's not impressed with the route changes in Bayers Lake that isolatepart of Chain Lake Drive.

"It's going to be cut off," said Marks."My husband works up there and it's going to hurt the businesses as far as I know."

Coun.Richard Zurawski presented a petition toregional council Aug. 14,asking for that part of the Crosstown route to bereinstated.

"It's creating some serious hardships for the constituents ofDistrict 12," he said.

Value Village,ausedclothing and household item store, is locatedalong the section ofChain Lake Drive that will no longer haveany bus service.

The store is uphill from where the bus route will now turn to go up Washmill Lake Drive.

Hughes said the decision was based on ridership numbers.

"That portion of Chain Lake Drive was one of our lowest ridership areas. Washmill Lake Drive has been asking for service for years and we're happy to now have a route there."

Despite the concerns, transit officials have high hopes for this latest round ofchanges based on what happened after a number of routes in Spryfield were reorganized in November 2017.

According to Halifax Transit numbers, weekday ridership has increased 25 per cent since then.

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