Achi news desk-
Working towards a common goal is beneficial, as a conference in Halifax showed on Monday.
“There’s a lot of scalability and the lessons learned in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver definitely apply to medium-sized systems like here in Halifax,” said Jon MacMull, spokesperson for the Canadian Urban Transit Association (CUTA).
CUTA is holding its 2024 spring summit and annual general meeting in Halifax.
Issues relating to staffing and operator safety are top of mind for many in attendance as well as the switch to an electric fleet.
“The electrification part is really interesting because the different systems are all at different stages so we’re kind of in the middle,” said Dave Reage, executive director of Halifax Transit.
Reage admits that larger cities are further along in modernizing their equipment but that provides a template for his department to follow.
“Buying the buses (is) really the easy part and then we have to design the infrastructure in the garage to charge them and the big thing is trying to figure out how we implement them in really, how do you do it reliably,” Reage said.
“There is an increasing demand for transit as our country’s population continues to grow,” adds Edmonton city councilor Andrew Knack.
Knack says he has never been higher as a rider and the key has been in scheduling.
“Most cities have moved more towards running buses more often than trying to reach every corner, every part of the city. That has typically increased ridership across the country,” he said.
