TransLink is inviting public input on its plans for service in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows, and Roger Welch plans to lobby for Sunday service.
Welch is a regular volunteer at Ridge Meadows Hospital and is frustrated that with a reduction in Sunday transit service and no bus stops at the hospital.
The closest he can get is Dewdney Trunk Road and Laity Street.
“For a senior or a person in a wheelchair, that’s still quite a hike,” he said.
According to Google maps, it’s 600 metres.
Welch is not concerned with saving himself walking distance, just that people who are not ambulatory cannot get transit to the hospital on Sundays and statuatory holidays.
“It’s not for me, it just hits me wrong. One of my goals is to be a good citizen.”
Welch lobbied the city for a bus shelter in front of the hospital and said about nine months later, one was built.
Now he plans to start lobbying the regional transit authority to get buses stopping at the hospital.
TransLink is developing a Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows area transit plan, which includes not just public transit, but cycling, walking and driving infrastructure.
TransLink is asking for feedback on its strategies, including a redesign of existing transit routes, increased transit service including frequency, hours of service and days of operation, and identifying strategies for cycling and walking to transit.
There will be five information sessions:
• Haney Place Transit Exchange on April 5, from 2:30-5:50 p.m.;
• Pitt Meadows Rec Centre, April 6, 9 a.m. to noon;
• Glenwood Elementary, April 10 from 4-8 p.m.;
• Pitt Meadows West Coast Express Station on April 12 from 5:45-8 a.m.;
• Maple Ridge Earth Day, April 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Translink also has a survey at www.translink.ca/mrpm.
One of the key upgrades TransLink is planning in Maple Ridge is the B-Line bus service from downtown Maple Ridge to Coquitlam Centre SkyTrain station, which is to be operating by the end of 2019.
It will run every 15 minutes with limited stops.