Whistler Transit System Financial and Facility Review

Whistler Transit costs down by 17 per cent

The Whistler Transit System Financial and Facility Review has resulted in the transit funding gap narrowing significantly from $2.3 million in 2011 to $840,000 in 2012. As a result of the reviews, the total cost of delivering transit services to Whistler has been reduced from $13.4 million to $11.12 million, a reduction of $2.28 million or 17%.

The results follow an extensive review of the system including routes, frequency of service, fleet, transit facility and other aspects of the system. Further decreases will be sought moving forward.

During the 2011 municipal budget process it became clear to staff that there was a growing gap between available transit funding and the estimated funding needed to maintain current levels of transit service into the future. Council instructed staff to work with BC Transit to review the transit service structure and the Whistler Transit system financials.  The reviews are complete and have been presented to Council through three reports this year: a preliminary service review report May 17, a full service review report September 6 and a financial and facility report November 1.  The goal of these reviews was to define and implement a transit system that the community can afford for Winter 2011/2012 and beyond.

The Whistler Transit System service review process used a collaborative, data-intensive approach which started with an information gathering stage. During this stage, ridership data was collected throughout the existing system using automatic passenger counters and was recorded by route, by stop, and by time of day.

In September, Council approved the reconfiguration of the Whistler Transit System route structure and service levels. The new system is a combination of the BC Transit proposed minimally acceptable service (58,600 service hours) with additions and deletions based on comments by community stakeholders and the public. The RMOW recommended service level has 60,500 annual service hours.

The new service level represents a service hour reduction of approximately 19% from the “business as usual” transit service of 75,000 service hours (2011 budgeted transit service level).  Highlights of the new plan include a new Valley Connector route, which forms the backbone of the service, with other service changes drawn from ridership data and public input. The new servivce is believed to be more efficient and effective, while delivering the services that better meet the community's needs.  See more transit information here.

Savings have been found through a variety of measures including the more efficient routing and service level based on user needs that resulted in fewer buses and other savings, increased advertising revenue, increasing the amortization period of the transit facility, a fare increase implemented in 2011 and a number of other savings. See the full report here.

It was clearly demonstrated through the reviews that the extra cost for the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen components of the transit maintenance facility are not being paid by the RMOW, an important finding given that this is a pilot project funded by other levels of government and Whistler was not to fund any aspects of it.

Last week, the Province of British Columbia initiated an independent review of BC Transit operations and performance. Current legislation has the Province paying 47 per cent of costs for regional transit systems, with the rest raised by local governments.

The Whistler transit system was established in 1991 with the first five buses operating during the winter 1991/1992 ski season. Since then service expanded to 30 buses providing transit to most neighbourhoods in Whistler and has become a critical part of our community’s infrastructure carrying three million passengers annually. The Whistler transit system is part of the BC Transit Regional Systems Program. It is funded in partnership between the Resort Municipality of Whistler (53.31%) and BC Transit (46.69%).  The local (RMOW) share is funded by fares (25%), provincial hotel tax revenues (9%), and local taxation (19%).