NewsShuttle bus fee increases by $11 following student vote

Shuttle bus fee increases by $11 following student vote

This article was published on November 13, 2013 and may be out of date. To maintain our historical record, The Cascade does not update or remove outdated articles.
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By Jess Wind (The Cascade) – Email

Print Edition: November 13, 2013

 

Transit fee will be going from $6.75 to $17.75 for the winter 2014 semester.
Transit fee will be going from $6.75 to $17.75 for the winter 2014 semester.

The results are in. Voting students approved the latest transit referendum.

The referendum question asked if students were in favour of an $11 increase to the current $6.75 per semester fee for expanded service to UFV’s new inter-campus shuttle bus.

“We’ve been having up to 1400 riders a week. There’s been consistently 20-30 turn-aways a week,” SUS president Shane Potter says.

He adds that he believes the referendum’s success comes from the motivated students who have been turned away from overcrowded buses.

Potter says the majority of students turned away were trying to get from Abbotsford to the Chilliwack campus during peak times around 7 a.m., 2 p.m., and 5 p.m.

With a positive count of 535 votes out of 862, a 62 per cent majority, the fee will be increased for the Winter 2014 semester to $17.75, and the increased service is scheduled to take effect as soon as November 18. Students can view the new schedule online.

The service additions will include a third bus making runs between the Abbotsford and Chilliwack campuses throughout the day, longer service on Friday, and summer semester service.

In the final days of the referendum, a computer glitch caused issues for students trying to vote. To compensate, SUS extended the deadline by three days and set up manual voting stations on the campuses.

“It was only a small percentage of students that were affected by that, and from the students I’ve talked to, the tweets and stuff that I got, they were able to vote afterwards,” Potter explains.

Following a late night November 7 meeting at which the referendum results were ratified, Potter met with the transit committee, VP students Jody Gordon, and the shuttle service provider on November 8.

“We will be revamping the schedule in the winter semester,” Potter says. “The nice thing about having a private shuttle service is of course we can work exclusively around when students need it and have a plan that works for them.”

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