Transit outside Vancouver and Victoria
Introduction
BC Transit’s Victoria office, in partnership with local municipalities and service contractors, provides fixed route conventional bus transit service in 24 areas outside the metropolitan centres of Vancouver and Victoria through the Municipal Systems Program (formerly known as the Small Communities Program). The locations of all conventional, fixed route transit systems in British Columbia are shown on the map below.
Operations
Each system within the Municipal Systems Program operates as a three-way partnership between BC Transit, the local government, and an operating company. The responsibilities of each party are formalised each year through an Annual Operating Agreement (AOA). In essence, BC Transit acts as a consultant and funding agency to local governments that wish to host and partially fund a local transit service operated by a contractor. Operating companies are selected following a Request for Proposals that takes place every five years. Since 1994, the Request for Proposals has stipulated that the successful company must offer employment to all existing non-management and non-supervisory staff, and that existing seniority, wages, and certain benefits form part of the offer. In most cases the contractor is a third party, although four systems are operated directly by local government employees.
Vehicles for the Municipal Systems are leased from BC Transit’s provincial fleet.
Links to schedule and route information for the Municipal Systems:
Chilliwack/Agassiz/Harrison Hot Springs
Comox Valley
Cowichan Valley
Cranbrook
Kamloops
Kelowna
Kitimat
Nanaimo
Nelson
Prince Rupert
Terrace
Whistler
For more details on the the Municipal Systems program, visit BC Transit.
Ian Fisher