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Victoria Transit Commission must take regional approach to bus service

Treating West Shore as the back country doesn’t work today
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A passenger waits for the #50 bus at the Langford Exchange, the West Shore’s main bus service into downtown Victoria. One reader writes that the regional transit commission needs to stop treating the West Shore as the back country. Joel Tansey/News Gazette staff

Re: West Shore on the Go (Pt. 2, Inconvenient truth: Service gaps pose issues, Gazette April 21)

It’s good to have the perspective of transit users. It makes the commute on public transit and its issues real and raises the question how well is this service delivered.

Saanich Coun. Susan Brice, the Greater Victoria Regional Transit Commission chair, talks about us folks “out in the western cities.” East/west, far out/inner city? How about the region as a whole, metropolitan Victoria?

Langford Coun. Szpak is on to it, asking why treat the West Shore as the “back country?” Why, indeed. The centre of gravity in the region is shifting and its needs increasingly inter-connected and complex. What is needed is regional government with a mandate and the powers to run transit and other regional services.

Governance reform must be on the horizon.

John Olson

Colwood