Directors for BC Transit made a long overdue visit to the Kootenays to review the fragmented public bus service offered to the region.

The Regional District of Central Kootenay (RDCK) and area school boards hope the transit planners got a clear indication from their 50 hours of public meetings that what the West Kootenay wants is a reliable regional transit system that will link the region’s many communities with more commuter busses and single fares between cities.

At the RDCK meeting on Oct. 22, BC Transit representatives seemed unaware the region had long been pushing for a regional system, despite having already met with many of the directors in private meetings and open houses.

“We can’t push this plan on you. We can only tell you our idea and ask you to pull for it in your own communities,” said Peter Rantucci of BC Transit told the directors at the meeting.

This frustrated Director Andrew Shadrack from Area D who said no pushing would be necessary, because the board would welcome the plan with open arms.

“We’ve already shown a willingness to partner with you,” Shadrack said. “I don’t think there’s an unwillingness on our side.”

On Oct. 8, the RDCK sent a joint letter with the Central and Boundary districts as well as the school districts 8 and 20 to express their clear support for a regional transit system.

“We believe there is merit in making significant changes as opposed to ‘tweaking’ a system that is arguably out of date,” the letter stated.

Rantucci is relatively new to his job at Transit. He joined Transit two months ago and now oversees 80 transit contracts throughout the province, seven of which run through the RDCK. He said he immediately noticed the number of contracts here as a problem.

“It’s far too many and doesn’t recognize the regional nature and the connections between your communities,” he said.

BC Transit also has a new president, Steve New, who Rantucci said is committed to regionalizing transit services. Currently BC Transit has a regional system in the Capitol Regional District around Victoria, which runs public busses through 13 municipalities.

“I don’t know what it’s going to take to do something like that in an area as big as the Kootenays,” said Rantucci. “What we do here will be a model for the rest of the province.”

Many RDCK directors agreed the meetings were a good first step for transit.

“This is the first time in seven years I’ve been able to see a human being that was associated with transit,” said Area B Director John Kettle.

However directors said they’d been talking about transit for years and hoped the meetings would mean they’d finally see some action.

The final comment of the meeting was given by John Dooley who gave the three directors from Transit a RDCK pen to thank them for speaking. He candidly summed up what everybody else at the table seemed to be thinking: “If you can bring a regional transit to the Kootenays, we’ll forever refer to you as Jesus, Mary and Joseph.”

If you missed your chanced to talk to BC Transit at an open house, you can still submit your feedback on a regional transit system online by going to bctransit.com/kootenays and filling out the transit survey before November 30.