The Martlet

Weekend late-night bus service will resume in September, with routes 4, 6 and 14 running until 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

At a special meeting on June 7, The Victoria Regional Transit Commission (VRTC) voted to bring back the late night service following a review of the late night pilot project that ran from January to April.

“We’re thrilled,” said UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) Director of Academics Rajpreet Sall. “This is exactly what we’ve been working for.”

Sall attended the VRTC meeting with UVSS Chairperson James Coccola and Director-at-Large Tara Paterson.

Representatives from the Camosun College Student Society (CCSS) also attended.

Coccola distributed a joint letter from the UVSS, CCSS and UVic Graduate Students’ Society to VRTC members.

“It is vital that there be a safe, reliable and affordable way for individuals to leave downtown late at night,” read the letter. “Many people, in particular students, are employed in the service industry and often work later than 12:30 a.m.”

Coccola and Sall addressed VRTC members before the vote, urging them to support late-night service and noting the huge contribution that students make to B.C. Transit’s bottom line.

“Students have been a stable source of funding for B.C. Transit for the past decade,” said Coccola.

“Combined, UVic and Camosun [students] provide $4.3 million to B.C. Transit in UPass fees [each year],” said Sall. “By 2012/2013, it will be over $5 million annually.”

Sall noted that increases in UPass fees will more than cover the cost of late night busses.

“The cost of late night transit is just under $600,000. UPass fees will be contributing an extra $700,000 dollars annually,” she said.

The VRTC, which sets bus routes, fares and service levels in Greater Victoria, received B.C. Transit’s review of the late night trial project at its May 25 meeting. The trial saw bus routes 6, 4 and 14 run until 1:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights.

The review found that “the late night service was well received by the public, UVic and the City of Victoria.”

Significantly, the review also found that the percentage of bus riders who were UPass holders, monthly pass holders, ticket holders and regular fare holders was roughly the same during late-night service as during regular service.

However, B.C. Transit had recommended against resuming the late-night service, citing the cost. Extending Friday and Saturday night service to 1:30 a.m. on routes 4, 6 and 14 will cost $557,900 per year, according to B.C. Transit estimates.

B.C. Transit instead recommended “that priority be given to service improvements addressing customer service issues with existing service or improving service where greater ridership can be achieved.”

But the VRTC asked B.C. Transit to research more options for continuing the late-night service.

B.C. Transit presented five options at the June 7 meeting, and the VRTC chose to continue the late-night service with temporary contingency funding.

“We’ll take a full year at it and evaluate it from there,” said Victoria Mayor and VRTC member Dean Fortin. “My expectation is it’s just going to grow.”

“It’s an important service and we’re happy to see it continue,” said Fortin. Coccola said that the UVSS Political Action Committee will help promote the late night bus service through tabling and postering on campus.

“We’re looking forward to working with the [VRTC] over the next year to make sure that the ridership increases,” he said.

Coccola said that B.C. Transit failed to properly promote the late-night service during the pilot project.

“In a lot of cases when they have changed service, they do advertise it on their buses,” said Coccola. “I don’t recall ever seeing that for late night service, nor does anybody else that I’ve talked to.”

Christopher Causton, VRTC Chair and Mayor of Oak Bay, acknowledged that B.C. Transit’s promotion of the late-night transit pilot project was inadequate, and that better marketing is needed to boost ridership.

“We’re going to have to do a really first class marketing campaign,” said Causton. “I’m going to make sure that happens.”