By Troy Gillard

Full stop

Lacombe to exit BOLT Transit

Sep 24, 2019 | 4:26 PM

The City of Lacombe is ending its involvement with BOLT Transit.

Monday night, council voted 5-2 in support of a motion from Councillor Don Gullekson to have city administration begin the process for discontinuing the service in Lacombe.

As per terms of the BOLT Transit contract, the decision will take effect in one year’s time.

Gullekson, who sat on the BOLT Transit committee, said the ridership numbers needed to make it viable just aren’t there.

“The cost of this service, in my opinion, is much too high for what we’re getting,” he said Monday. “I would like to see us move towards a community bus service within our own boundaries to serve (our) citizens.”

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Councillor Jonathan Jacobson, who also sat on the committee, compared BOLT ridership to Red Deer city transit, which sees 7.6 percent of resident riding buses on a daily basis. In order to match that, Jacobson said BOLT usage would have to skyrocket by 1,700 per cent.

“We’re talking about a thousand rides a day, jumping up from what we have now, which is 60. Does anybody think that’s realistic?” he asked his fellow councillors. “I can’t in good conscience vote for this to continue, because at the end of the day I’m going to be voting for it to be killed anyway.”

Jacobson acknowledged the decision to withdraw from BOLT was difficult given how many residents spoke in favour of keeping it. But he feels Lacombe would be best served by having a full transit study conducted to look at future options.

“I do think that study would be money well spent so that whenever this comes up down the road, whether it’s immediately after (BOLT ends) or down the road, we have a blueprint to refer to as to how we’re going to do this properly.”

Councillor Cora Hoekstra felt it was premature to end the contract given that Red Deer is currently reviewing its own public transportation system.

“This is a service that people in our community really want,” she said.

Councillor Thalia Hibbs spoke passionately in support of BOLT Transit and, along with Hoekstra, voted against the motion to terminate it. She took issue with the fact that the BOLT committee was given less than a year to find ways to improve the service.

“They just finished a survey, finally they get some data to base some decision making on, but they literally just got it and we’re going to cancel the service. Why did we even strike a committee, frankly? What a slap to the face of the people that were on that committee, especially the volunteers.”

Hibbs also said she was blown away by the number of emails she received from people in support of BOLT Transit.

“I’m not even necessarily pro-BOLT. I just see the opportunity here and I don’t want to give up on it too soon,” she explained.

“It’s never an easy thing to do, end a service like this,” Mayor Grant Creasey admitted during his remarks.

The BOLT Regional Transit Partnership between Red Deer, Blackfalds and Lacombe was formed in part to help fill the void left by the departure of Greyhound from Lacombe. BOLT bus trips began rolling on Highway 2A in September 2015.

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