The City of Thompson’s interim public transit contract with Maple Bus Lines expires at the end of the month, which means that local bus services will be indefinitely suspended July 1 until further notice.
That will be the second such suspension of bus service in Thompson in the last nine months. The first began November 1 of last year and continued until mid February.
In a June 19 news release, the city said their existing contract with Maple Bus Lines was developed with a defined term, from February to June 30, with no option for an extension.
The city says the ad-hoc transit committee has consulted with a variety of groups over the last five months in the hopes of developing a new deal. This includes talking with School District of Mystery Lake officials, R.D. Parker Collegiate students and representatives from the Juniper Centre to discuss the needs of their handivan program.
The news release says that the transit committee has determined the overall budget available for bus service – though it didn’t specify what the amount was – and will be meeting throughout the summer to work on this issue.
“It’s been a long road, and we’ve spent many long days reviewing our resources, understanding the needs of the needs of our transit users, and reaching a certain degree of consensus among the committee,” Mayor Colleen Smook said in the news release. “Unfortunately, the work isn’t over, but we’re not quitting until it’s done.”
Thompson resident Bobbi Montean was angry after hearing this news, since she and other people with disabilities rely on the bus system to get around town.
“We still need to get to medical appointments, to grocery shop, get our medications and to get out to community events to socialize/ volunteer,” she wrote via Facebook Messenger. “And because it is hot out ... some of us need to get to cooler places to cool down.”
Before transit services resumed Feb. 11, Thompson was without public transit since Oct. 31, 2018, when Greyhound officially shuttered their operations throughout Western Canada.
During this period, Ross Martin, who is visually impaired, said he had to rely on friends, family and taxis to get around town, which is what he’ll have to do once again when July rolls around.
However, Martin said this isn’t an option for everybody, especially if they’ve exhausted their free rides and are forced to pay for cabs.
“If you’re working at minimum wage and you’re spending $20 to go to work and back, you just ate up three hours of work time,” he said. “That’s pretty hefty and it’s just not fair.”
In the future, Martin would actually like to see the city run its own transit system, as opposed to contracting it out, and take a more active role in fixing the problems that have been plaguing the system for years now.
“It’s not advertised, the transit signs are not up, some are misplaced,” he said, “It’s just a host of past mistakes and indifference to the system over multiple years, not just this council but previous councils. It didn’t get this way overnight.”
