The transit dispute may be over in Moncton, but there is still no word on when buses will be back on the street.
After more than five months without bus service, Moncton transit users are anxious to get the wheels rolling again.
“With the costs that we have been enduring for the last five months, we are very happy to actually be close to seeing buses back on the roads right now,” says transit user Lucien Sivret.
Sivret was active in getting people organized during the transit lockout. He set up Facebook pages and petitions and spoke to city council. He is thrilled service will soon be restored, but the city can’t tell him when that will be.
The city says it will know soon when service will begin again, but work is still being done on the buses and drivers need education on a new system being implemented.
The city introduced a list of changes to the transit system Thursday, to make it more efficient and to entice people to return to using the buses.
There will be fewer routes, but transfer times should go down, as routes are better co-ordinated.
A coliseum line has been added and the city says the new system will be more flexible for future changes and expansion.
However, how far users have to walk to get to a bus stop has increased by half a kilometre.
“We wanted to make sure that we had a streamlined system that offered great service to our public, but they have to walk a little further. Five hundred metres is about a five-minute walk,” says senior transit planner Marie-Claire Pierce.
Riverview stands to benefit from the transit changes, with a new Sunday service and more evening buses on the road - service levels that Moncton and Dieppe have long enjoyed.
The city says the buses should be up and running sometime before Christmas.
With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell
