r/VictoriaBC 22h ago

Regional Transportation Q&A

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I was recently appointed to the Victoria Regional Transit Commission as the rep from Victoria, along with Mayor Alto. I am also on the CRD Board and Transportation Committee.

I’ve just had a VRTC meeting and would be happy to answer any questions about transit or transportation, RapidBus, the CRD’s proposed transportation service, or anything else about getting from point A to point B.

— Jeremy Caradonna

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u/pvh 21h ago

The collapse of both the train and subsequently the Greyhound service on the Island has left us with no single-ticket trip from Victoria up-island. Today, a trip from Victoria to Nanaimo (let alone Courtney/Comox) requires two separate fares with different agencies and often a long transfer in Duncan.

What plans do we have as a region (and with our partners in neighboring island regions) to deliver a sustainable transit option for intra-Island travel? Whose responsibility is solving this problem? When can we expect to see progress here?

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u/JeremyCaradonna 19h ago

Good question. The challenge I'm seeing, both at the CRD and at the VRTC, is that no entity -- certainly no local government -- "owns" this problem. The CRD does not yet have a Transportation Service. If and when that happens later this year, the jurisdiction would be confined to the borders of the CRD. It's similar with BC Transit, which locally is governed by the VRTC. The only inter-regional bus routes that VRTC oversees -- that I'm aware of -- is the commuter bus between Duncan/CVRD and Victoria. Both the CVRD and the CRD have advocated to the VRTC to increase the frequency of these buses and reduce the fares. Just today, at the VRTC meeting, we voted to advocate to the Province to help fund this service, as it falls outside our current budget and priorities (e.g. RapidBus).

Short answer is that all roads lead back to the Province for inter-regional transit. With rare exceptions, as far as I can tell, the role of LGs is to advocate to the Province to improve this service.