Whistler’s council signed off on a new annual operating agreement with BC Transit for the Whistler transit system at its July 23 meeting.
The new agreement, effective from April 1, 2024 to May 30, 2025, costs $15,143,432—which is more than $2 million above the previous operating agreement.
According to a staff report, the bump is related to a 10-per-cent increase in service hours permitted by the province for 2024 and beyond; new operations contract wages; increased costs of fuel, parts, and equipment; and new technology costs, like the implementation of the new Umo electronic fare collection system.
Lucky for Whistler, the difference from last year isn’t entirely covered by the taxpayer. BC Transit is responsible for 47 per cent of funding Whistler’s public transport, while all fares collected go into the system. There is Resort Municipality Initiative funding in the mix too, and the municipality continues to draw down on safe-restart funds it was allocated during the pandemic—meaning for the RMOW, it needs to cough up an extra $400,000 for the new operating agreement.
According to the staff report, $300,000 of the increase was already accounted for in the budget for 2024.
In delivering the report to council, the RMOW’s transportation demand management coordinator, Emma DalSanto, explained staff had not expected the province to grant the entire service expansion request to the RMOW—which explains the shortfall in funding, and another $114,000 needs to be added to the municipal budget for transit in 2024 and 2025.
The same increase in costs to operate the system means the province is chipping in a further $918,000.
DalSanto’s presentation included a look at transit numbers for Whistler—which showed ridership is up, the increase in service is being taken advantage of, and ticketing is being improved.
“You can see in 2024 we are at our highest that we have been ever in this season,” she said, referring to a graph of all ridership showing that weekly ridership numbers were tracking over 40,000 in July—a period of the year where ridership traditionally tracks lower.
“It looks like going forward we will be at our highest ever in winter as well for ridership,” she said.
Broadly speaking, DalSanto said Whistler Transit has recovered beyond all the trials and tribulations of the last few years.
“We are back above 2019, which was our highest ridership previously: we’ve recovered from COVID; the strike; [and] a lot of the issues we had last year with driver shortages,” she said.
She also said re-allocation of routes is working, pointing out every time they re-allocated resources to the 10, that route saw a jump in ridership.
The 10 is the Valley Express, serving as the backbone of the entire Whistler Transit system.
Looking at route-by-route graphs, DalSanto said ridership showed that “tourism was back,” highlighting free shuttle routes, and routes that serve staff housing as trending upwards over previous years.
During questions, Councillor Cathy Jewett asked about fares, which account for some $2.5 million in funding for transit, querying who set the rates.
DalSanto explained the RMOW has the power to set fares, and has done so since 1991, pointing out Whistler council has consistently set fares below the BC Transit-recommended rates to ensure affordable transportation options.
Changes to ticketing also came up in questions, with the new Umo system praised by councillors for finally being applied to Whistler. Paper tickets already in circulation will still be accepted, but DalSanto said they will no longer be sold going forward.
Councillors voted unanimously to approve the new annual operating agreement with BC Transit, and to approve the budgetary changes, which will be baked into the annual budgetary documents following a financial update in fall.
