MEDIA RELEASE: Transit advocates call for immediate ‘stop and rethink’ to Halifax Transit’s Moving Forward Together plan

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

HALIFAX, NS – It’s More than Buses (IMTB), a public transit advocacy group in Halifax, is calling for an immediate ‘stop and rethink’ to Halifax Transit’s network redesign plan. The group has serious concerns that the plan, as designed, will not meet the needs of residents and visitors in the region.

“This is a plan that disregards the key principles that Halifax Transit itself identified through years of public engagement and consultation,” the group said in a statement. “These are the same principles that were presented to and approved by Regional Council,” the statement continued.

IMTB proposes that, at the upcoming meeting on Tuesday, November 22, Halifax Regional Council pause the current plan and direct Halifax Transit to seek an external expert in transit network design to advise, assist, and review the network redesign process.

The current plan, called Moving Forward Together, identifies four key principles for the future of Halifax Transit: (1) increase resources allocated to high ridership services, (2) build a simplified transfer based system, (3) invest in service quality and reliability, and (4) give transit increased priority in the transportation network.

IMTB says the new routes that are proposed in Moving Forward Together are “largely a variation of the status quo and will not provide any significant increase in travel choices over the existing transit network.”  In addition, they noted that “many of the routes overlap, thereby rendering them redundant, and do not run with enough frequency or speed to attract new riders.”

The group raised concerns about the lack of information and justification in the Moving Forward Together Plan, claiming that Halifax Transit has not provided enough evidence, such as travel time mapping and resource allocation figures, to justify how these changes could impact regional travel choices. Also noted was that the proposed five-year implementation of Moving Forward Together will make taking transit highly unpredictable as routes will constantly be changing.

About It’s More than Buses

It’s More than Buses is a public transit advocacy group in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Comprised of urban planners, business owners, students, and everyday transit users, IMTB envisions fast, frequent, reliable and user-friendly transit for all of Halifax.

Media Contacts

 

Jeff Blair

Daytime Telephone: 902-441-2531

Email: [email protected]

 

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