Kings Transit may operate route from Windsor to Halifax

Regular bus service may link Windsor and much of Hants County to Halifax before long.

Acting on a request from the Municipality of East Hants, Kings Transit is asking consultants to research the matter and report by March 15.

So far about 10 indications of interest have be received according to Ron Mullins, General Manager of the bus line. Kings is offering $30,000 of provincial government money held a little-known fund called the Transport Regional Incentive Plan.

If the bus line gets the money, the consultants can be hired. If the consultants’ report is positive, various county councils may vote the money to go ahead.

Roseanne Bland, councillor for Mount Uniacke on the East Hants municipal council, is an enthusiastic supporter of the idea. “To finally have the choice to travel in either direction would be so beneficial to this community that it is hard to describe,” she writes in an email to the Hants Journal.

But at least one stakeholder in the transportation industry hates the idea. If this proposal goes ahead “I would be out of business, it’s that simple, and I will be looking to the government for compensaation,” says Randy Mosher who, with his wife, owns Green Rider, a weekday van service for commuters.

But while Green Rider serves commuters, Bland sees the service as catering to people who are not working, such as high school students staying late after school and retired people travelling to Windsor or Halifax for medical appointments.

The main factor in everybody’s mind is the cost. “Transit is never about making money,” says Mullins. “It’s like police, fire protection, sewer and water. Politicians have to believe in it. It’s not about breaking even.”

He says it costs about $200,000 to keep a single bus running from 6 a.m. to 2 a.m. six days a week all year long, including the cost of drivers.

If a new route generated 10,000 passengers per year and the fare is $2.50, that’s only $25,000. The rest, $175,000 would be spread among the citizens of East Hants, all 22,401 of them. That works out to $7.81 per person per year. And that’s only for one bus.

But that’s how Kings Transit has grown all along. In the early 1980s it began with just two buses and six employees. It now has 15 buses on the road and more than 30 full-time employees.

And the route the municipally owned bus company services has grown from the Kentville-Wolfville corridor to cover the entire Annapolis Valley and beyond, from Windsor to Weymouth.

With Acadia cutting service along the same route, Halifax is a pretty obvious next stop.