CBRM's struggling bus system does U-turn thanks to influx of students

Global Studies is a CBC series exploring how the influx of international students at Cape Breton University is transforming the school and the community.

The Cape Breton Regional Municipality's public transit system — once facing significant budget cuts and struggling to fill seats — has made a dramatic recovery.

Kathy Donovan, manager of Cape Breton Transit, said the service was practically on its deathbed before the arrival of nearly 2,500 international students at CBU since September. 

"Ridership was extremely low, runs were cut prior to that," said Donovan. "Now we're adding runs, we're adding staff.

"There's a boom in transit right now, yes, so [international students] have saved transit, and in turn they have provided a good quality transit system to the residents of the CBRM."

Four years ago, CBRM council was asked to consider cutting one-third of the transit budget as the municipality struggled with a dwindling population and a poor economy.

Now, a sudden population increase has spurred the university and three levels of government to invest in buses, staff and infrastructure. The transit system has added nine buses, created additional routes and extended service into the evenings in answer to long-standing complaints from residents — and more improvements are planned.

Riders happy with changes

For the first time in years, buses run Sundays on the highway that goes past the university between downtown Sydney and downtown Glace Bay.

Charlie Hillier of Sydney, who regularly takes the bus to work, said the service has changed quite a bit just in the last year. 

The system isn't perfect, Hillier said, but overall he's happy.

"Well, they get you there 10 minutes late, but as long as they get you there, that's the main thing."

Chris Dunsworth also regularly rides the bus to work, and said he likes it.

"Good service, and it's on time, and you meet lots of interesting people."

Donovan said ridership was up 80 per cent in December. Since January, Cape Breton Transit has added another run to the university and extended evening services in New Waterford and North Sydney.

"Now that we're making more purchases thanks to federal and provincial funding, and CBU stepping up, we're able to put more buses on the road and to provide a more dependable service to our residents," she said.

Aman Deepsingh of India, a petroleum engineering student at CBU, said the bus service in Cape Breton is good.

At the end of the day, however, there is usually a long lineup at the university's bus circle and buses fill up quickly. Students sometimes have to wait for the next bus to come along.

"Most of the time in the evenings, if we are moving to Sydney, then there is a problem ... a lot of students are there and sometimes we miss the bus," Deepsingh said.

The system also needs more bus shelters to get people out of the cold, he said.

Those are complaints Donovan has heard before.

New bus shelters coming

She said Pattison Advertising has a contract to install four new shelters this year and CBRM is looking at more.

"It's very high on our agenda ... but right now, we're in initial phases of that study to find out exactly what we need," Donovan said.

"We definitely see the need. Students are coming here sometimes not prepared for Cape Breton winters. That's certainly on my radar."

Donovan said the plan is to build a transit system that benefits everyone, from permanent residents to visitors — regardless of the number of international students at CBU.

"If you go to Halifax or Moncton, they have a good transit system in place so that their residents or students can travel to and from shopping districts, employment," she said.

"It's hard to attract people to the municipality if you don't have a good, solid transit system, so yes, we have the ability to scale back if necessary, but ideally we would like to sustain that for the future of all of our residents."

• Listen to Tom Ayers trip with CBRM transit here: 
• Read more stories from CBC's Global Studies project
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