Time for a dedicated airport bus route says Regina councillor

ACity of ReginaCouncilloris calling for a dedicated airport bus route for both employees and travellers.

Ward 3Coun.Andrew Stevens said even withride-hailingpotentially coming to Regina, it won't eliminate the need for public transit.

"Certainly when people land at the airport it will likely be their first instinct to find a cab orUberorLyft," he said. "But we have to remember that the airport and the airport land that surrounds the airport itself, it's an important employment hub."

"If you go to any sized city with an international airport there is some public transportation option," Stevens said. "And I'm always pleased to see residents pushing for at least a bus route or a stop to the airport."

Stevens said the issue had been discussed with his predecessor ShawnFraser, but that he decided to push for it now after hearing from someone that they were advocating for a bus route since the1980s.

Stevens is bringing a notice of motion to the Council meeting on Monday and said it will then be discussed at the February council meeting.

This will take some conversations to understand how it would be successful, Stevens said.

"What I don't want to see is an empty bus," he said. "I think it's a given that we need the airport itself and airport lands to be connected through public transit."

Stevens said he wants to see an assessment of ridership and hours of operation.

"I also want the conversation started with the airport authority itself and figure out ways to make this work," he said. "This is actually going tobe a challenge."

Stevens said he has heard anecdotally that there may be problems in terms of timing the buses and the roads in the airport area supporting buses but that this is a long time coming.

"If you think about it, it's really just off of the Lewvan. We have far more remote areas of the city that have better public transit options," he said. "There's really no reason why this is a hurdle that can't be overcome."

Stevens said he hopes the federal and provincial governments may financially support the public transportation idea. As well, he said third parties should be consulted to help make operational expenses reasonable.

Dedicated route over adding a stop to an existing route

He said ideally he would like a dedicated route to connect employees to their neighbourhoods and travellers to downtown hotels or accommodations in the east end.

"The idea of it kind of doing this milk run from the airport like the Saskatoon option, that's not really going to incentivize people to use it," he said.

Adding a stop to a route already being used may not be ideal, said Stevens.

"There are some options that have been considered of just kind of branching off an existing route," he said. "That has consequences."

"All of a sudden you have a bus stop maybe it's not going to be well serviced because it's more of a milk run. And that pilot might fail," he said.

"This is part of a conversation that I'm hoping we carry forward when it comes to expanding public transit options in the City of Regina," Stevens said.