Gas tax funding welcome news for city transit

Earlier we told you North Bay is getting more gas tax funding from the province for transit.

MPP Vic Fedeli officially announced over $895,000 aboard a city transit bus this morning (Wednesday) with Mayor Al McDonald.

That’s up from $869,000 last year.

“Our government is investing in public transit in order to make travel throughout the city more convenient and attract even more riders,” says Fedeli. “Ontario’s Gas Tax program will help improve North Bay’s transit system which will help improve the environment, and at the same time make life easier for people travelling to and from work, school and appointments.”

North Bay Transit Manager Remi Renaud says the gas tax funding is welcome news.

He says the money can, and has gone towards new bus purchases, accessibility upgrades involving sidewalks and concrete pads at bus stops, and solar-powered bus shelters.

“It will help us to continue to grow this transit system, we’ve done very well. This kind of funding is crucial for us to make sure we keep growing and meeting the needs of the citizens of North Bay,” Renaud says.

Meantime, transit ridership is up.

“We’ve seen an increase in 2018 over 2017 so the ridership is increasing,” he says. “A large portion of our ridership is our student population and then of course we have a lot of adults and our senior citizens too.”

Renaud also says, as a part of a different funding program, security cameras will be installed on their fleet of buses starting next week.

Each bus will have several cameras, both inside and out.

“Four or five on board the bus, inside the bus, one will be directed outside the windshield so they will be able to see the front area. There will be cameras pointing at various locations in the bus and we’ll also have cameras on the outside of each side of the bus as well,” he says.

It should be about three weeks to a month before the cameras are fully installed on the fleet, enhancing passenger and driver security.

In September, Council approved a contract for just over $200,000 for the project.

Renaud says a popular upgrade has been the ‘myrideNBT‘ app which tells riders an estimated time that their bus will arrive at their stop.

He says passenger counters also help them design routes and decide on service areas.

(Photos by Richard Coffin)