A group of Beaver Bank residents have formed a committee to help determine what bus runs should be cut in their community.
The committee was formed following an Aug. 12 meeting held by the Woodbine Family Association at the Brown Hall. The meeting included parents frustrated by the cancellation of a courtesy community bus that transports about 120 Woodbine students to Beaver Bank-Monarch Drive Elementary School.
With the exception of a small handful of children, the majority live closer than the school board's 2.4 km radius that determines who can be bussed. Bonnie Ryan, who chaired the meeting, said more than a decade ago the school board and Stock Transportation cut the courtesy bus from Woodbine to Monarch school. Parents were upset and it was agreed a community bus would start bringing the children to school.
"This was meant to be a temporary solution all those years ago," she said. "Now they are cutting that run and other runs in the area and the residents were very upset."
Ryan said while she understands Metro Transit's decision, most Woodbine residents don't have vehicles and the busy stretch of Beaver Bank Road from the trailer park to the school includes fast moving traffic and a very large hill. There's no crosswalk or crossing guard in the area.
"The sidewalks also are not plowed immediately after a storm so this also causes issues," Ryan said. "Barry (Councillor Dalrymple) stated that it is a priority for him to make sure these children get to school safely."
It became obvious Metro Transit's plans to cut some of the Beaver Bank runs didn't sit well with others who attended the Aug. 12 meeting. They expressed frustration that councillors who didn't even live in the district made a decision to cut Beaver Bank bus runs without public input.
Karen Kilgour is a single mother who relies on the bus to get her from Woodbine to her provincial government job in downtown Halifax. She based her decision to move to the area, in part, on the availability of transit. If her bus home runs late due to an accident, if she can get overtime, or if she needs to pick up groceries, she wonders how she'll manage getting home if the Beaver Bank bus stops running at 6 p.m.
"I rely very heavily on the bus and they're cutting out all the evening runs," she said. "Life doesn't stop at 6 o'clock."
Kilgour questions how Woodbine seniors will get to appointments, how students will get to sports activities and part time jobs, and how people like herself can get home from work if something unexpected happens when the buses don't run after 6 p.m. or in the afternoon.
"The people this is hurting are the people who really need it. I don't think the councillors really looked at this," Kilgour said. "Other public transportation options don't exist in Beaver Bank. There are no other buses."
The changes aren't supposed to take effect until late November. Ryan said Coun. Dalrymple has asked Metro Transit to attend another meeting in the next week or two. He also requested the community form a Beaver Bank bus committee, which Ryan now chairs. That committee is meeting regularly.
"We want to find out how many people normally ride the bus, what runs they take, and we're going to take night and day runs and see from that what we can afford to lose," Ryan said.
Coun. Dalrymple said he doesn't believe it's possible to keep all the current Beaver Bank bus runs, but he agrees with residents that the cuts need to be made with a better idea of the community's needs.
"They're going three early morning routes into the city and three around suppertime with nothing midday or in the evening," he said. "If you go into the doctor's office or pick up your groceries in the morning how do you get back? You can't wait eight or nine hours for a bus. That's ludicrous."
Although the bussing to Monarch Elementary is a school board issue, Dalrymple said he believes Metro Transit shouldn't just drop the ball after 14 years of providing the service.
"I've asked Metro Transit to come back with viable options and I intend to ask them to continue this for students until another option is found," he said. "The province and school board have to do something about this."
ydentremont@hfxnews.ca
