One of the buses in the Saint John Transit fleet. (Staff photo)
The city is hoping to find $2 million of efficiencies through a new review of its transit services.
The review is a key element in the Sustaining Saint John action plan, which aims to deal with a $10-million deficit in 2021.
But Grant Logan with the Amalgamated Transit Union says $2 million would mean a big hit to the service.
“Nobody else is being hit that hard, and we would view Saint John Transit as an essential service. It has to be out there. There’s so many people that travel by bus. Not just the regulars on it, but to bring people to the city, it’s a major selling feature,” he said.
Logan says cutting an essential service like transit by $2 million doesn’t send a good message.
“We have to have a transit system. You can’t bring people back here if you keep deducting … It’s not feasible. It’s not a system that is going to stick around if they keep cutting and want to cut,” he said.
“$2 million dollars is dramatic.”
The city has requested proposals for an outside firm to conduct the fundamental review.
It’s not the first time transit cuts have been explored. But this time, the company tasked with the review is being asked to think “broadly and creatively.”
City Manager John Collin says that doesn’t necessarily mean broad cuts.
“This is not just an exercise in cutting routes. In fact, arguably there may not be a single route cut as this review is undertaken,” he said during a special council meeting earlier this month.
“Do we still need 50 passenger buses on all our routes or can we have some other transportation on those routes?” he asked.
Logan says transit has been facing cuts for almost a decade, and it’s no longer sustainable.
“I have one person who is on the bus every day a minimum of seven times between going back and forth to work, taking the kids to daycare. If you take away that service, well, how many other people fall into that same category?”
“Bottom line: we need a service, and we need to have a sustainable service.”
Logan is also worried that ongoing cuts to transit will impact the service’s growth.
“The city is so large geographically that I can’t see us going without having at least the service we have now, or keeping it sustainable and to grow it. It has to grow. It’s almost a conflict of interest: you want to grow the city but you want to reduce the transit,” he said.
Logan says Saint John Transit saw an increase in service hours last year, bringing them up to 97,800 hours.
He says $2 million in cuts could bring them down to 69,000 hours, or 40 per cent of the service.
“I would just like to see it put as an essential service,” he said.
He has written a letter to mayor and council outlining his concerns but hasn’t heard anything back.
