Several small cuts to Chilliwack transit routes are coming this fall, but council members are none too happy about it.

“Just so everyone on council knows, we were turned down for a grant from the provincial government,” Mayor Sharon Gaetz announced at this week’s meeting at city hall.

The shortfall is going to translate into scheduling and route changes to the Chilliwack Transit Riders Guide for September 2009 or January 2010.

Regular bus service from Dayton Drive, Insley Avenue and the school run service on Roy Avenue, Vanmar Street and part of Stevenson, will be deleted from the transit schedule.

The changes will also shorten the #7 route to serve Sardis only, and no longer serve downtown, and will realign #6 route to improve the timing with route #7.

The city budget made provisions for a new handyDART bus as well as one conventional bus, but the grant being allocated for those items was insufficient, said Gaetz.

So the money will now likely have to come out of the snow-removal budget, and will also see reductions to some of the bus routes.

“The province didn’t see fit to fund half of the cost the way it normally would,” Gaetz reported at the meeting, which is “too bad” for the city coffers and the community.

“We had hoped the province would fund their share of a modest expansion to alleviate the late performance,” according to the staff report.

The thumbs-down for funding has forced the city’s hand in making a series of small transit service cuts.

Coun. Chuck Stam said while he was disappointed by the lack of provincial funding support and the transit cuts they had to approve, he hopes the route changes will improve the timing and transit frequency.

A staff report stated that the additional city buses were needed “to counter the effects of increased ridership and growing traffic congestion, which work together to make our transit system late each day.”

City officials surveyed Dayton and Insley residents in 2008 and found that most residents were in agreement with the rerouting of that portion onto Stevenson, Evans and Tyson Roads.

“A few residents opposed were a short walk from Stevenson or may be eligible for handyDART service,” read the staff report.

No concerns about the changes were raised by school district officials.

jfeinberg@theprogress.com