Soaring fuel costs and engine troubles have Gabriola transit operators seeking more money from the Regional District of Nanaimo.
Gabriola’s Environmentally Responsible Trans-Island Express, which receives no funding from the B.C. government, is currently funded $143,000 per year from the RDN. With budget deliberations set to begin, Steven Earle, with Gabriola Community Bus Foundation, is asking for an increase of $30,000 in 2023.
Earle said the transit provider has bounced back from the COVID-19 pandemic, at 80 per cent of 2019 ridership in 2022, but operations have been impacted in other ways.
“In spite of this continued recovery, 2022 was a difficult year for GERTIE,” Earle told directors. “We had several major breakdowns and our repair and maintenance costs were over $73,000. Our fleet of buses is not new; some of them are 10 years old … Fuel prices are way up, as everybody knows, so our fuel costs are also $16,000 over budget.”
Transitioning bus drivers from contract also led to more expenses, he said. Service could be cut by 1,000 transit hours to 3,142 hours in another proposed cost-saving measure.
The foundation is currently in the process of applying for federal funding for electric buses and when asked by Vanessa Craig, RDN board chairperson and Gabriola director, about how electrification would affect operations, Earle said it would be beneficial.
“We would replace two of [our buses] with electric buses,” said Earle. “We would still have a diesel bus in reserve, but we anticipate it would decrease our expenses significantly because fuel is a major expense and an electric bus is a lot cheaper to operate.”
Earle hopes the increase, along with a yearly two per cent cost-of-living adjustment, would remain in effect until the current agreement with the RDN ends in 2026.
The RDN’s preliminary 2023 budget is expected to be presented at a meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 17.
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