Summerside councillor seeking transit committee, more bus funding

A Summerside, P.E.I.,councillorsays more money needs to be invested in the city's transit for it to be viable.

Gordie Whitlocktold CBC News Monday that about 2,500 riders a year take the lone bus, which does a one-hour circuit from uptown to downtown.

As a first step, he's calling for a transit committeethat includes bus users and the city's CAO, Bob Ashley. It would look at the "full scope of transit," including a more robustschedule, bus shelters and adding airport-adjacent Slemon Park to the transit route, he said.

Whitlocksaid the main explanationhe hears from people who don't use transit is that they don't know when the bus is coming. (For the bulk of the schedule, the bus usually arrives a little over two hours after its previous visit.)

'My goal is anybody that wants to use it would use it'

"I guess my goal is anybody that wants to use it would use it," he said.

Summerside'sclimate makes long waits for the bus unfeasible, he said.

The current transit, which has been in place since 2012, costs Summerside about $18,000 a year. He'd like to see more money fromall three levels of government.

Whitlock said council will have an opportunity to discuss the committee idea at council's next meeting, July 17.

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