The City of Castlegar has been told that the cost of their desired expansion of transit services into the Grandview neighbourhood is going to cost a lot more than expected.
While the province denied a request to fund the expansion earlier this year, plans have been ongoing to request the expansion again.
The request would have extended the existing Route 34 bus to include service to Grandview Heights, adding 400 additional bus hours with an annual cost of $92,563. The City of Castlegar would have had to pay $58,000 of that amount.
Regional District of Central Kootenay West Kootenay Transit lead Tom Dool provided an update to Castlegar City Council at their Oct. 23 meeting.
Dool said that due to BC Transit's fleet constraints and the high cost of the larger vehicle required to service the Grandview area, current expansion options have become more expensive.
The new proposal from BC Transit also called for 1000 additional hours of service, instead of 400. The combination of additional hours and a larger bus brought the cost up to $227,421 per year with the city responsible for $124,230.
However, discussions are ongoing, and more information is expected later this month.
Dool said he didn't think the current option from BC Transit was a good fit for the city.
Mayor Maria McFaddin noted that a 1.3-per-cent tax increase would be necessary to fund this expansion proposal.
"It's not that I don't think this is important for that neighbourhood, but it's that this cannot be our model," said McFaddin. "For even five day service for a single neighbourhood, this just isn't reasonable.
"We have to find a better way to do rural transit because this is unscalable."
Dool has asked BC Transit to explore alternatives, such as an on-demand service, which has been successful in communities like Creston, Kaslo, and Nakusp.
There are also ongoing efforts to expand service levels to Selkirk College.
