A much-awaited school bus will transport Queensborough students to New Westminster Secondary School beginning in January 2024.
Richmond-Queensborough MLA Aman Singh, who had promised a free-dedicated TransLink bus between Queensborough and NWSS while campaigning during the 2020 civic election, announced today that a new bus service will take effect in January 2024. He said the contracted service will make it easier and safer for kids in Queensborough to get to school on the mainland.
Singh said the province is providing the New Westminster School District with a grant to run a school bus directly from Queensborough to NWSS for two-and-a-half years.
“It's not a transit bus, it'll be a bus that the school district operates,” he said. “There are some different school districts that operate school buses, so it'll be up to them.”
According to a news release from the province, the grant allows the school district to access up to $1.614 million over 2.5 years for the pilot project. Students who opt in to the dedicated school bus service will pay a $30 monthly fee to offset the total cost.
Singh said it’s unknown what ridership will be like on the new bus service, so the funding is sufficient enough to allow the district to provide multiple buses per day. He said TransLink had provided a bus service for Queensborough students until 2013.
“TransLink said there were concerns about ridership,” he said. “But Queensborough has grown in leaps and bounds since 2013. This project is for the next two-and-a-half years to see what the ridership actually is.”
Maya Russell, chair of the school board, said the board is pleased to receive the provincial grant for the Queensborough pilot bus program.
“We’re currently working on finalising operational and logistical details with the contracted bus service provider and hope to start the service in January 2024 and run it until June 2026,” she said.
Students who live in Queensborough can register for the pilot on the district website and should do so by Nov. 3, 2023. There is a charge of $30 per student per month, but the district’s hardship fund is available to assist families in need.
“We will provide more information such bus schedules when they become available in the near future (before the winter break),” Russell said.
Singh expects there to be “robust” interest in the service. Once it’s in place, the service will be reviewed and a longer term plan will developed.
“We were hoping to provide a free bus service. But looking around the province, the only place where a free service is provided, except for under 12 year olds, is places where students can't actually get to a place without a school bus service, so in remote areas,” he told the Record. “It would be unfair to British Columbians elsewhere to do that.”
Singh said he has heard “repeatedly” from Queensborough residents about the need for a bus service to the high school, and it’s something he’s been pushing for since becoming MLA.
“This is something that I really wanted to do get done,” he said. “This is something that every single MLA in our caucus knows about – the Queensborough bus. Even though it's a small thing, everybody knows about it.”
Singh, who is currently serving his first term as an MLA, said he didn’t realize how long it could take to get the service up and running.
“You're dealing with other people's money, there's a lot of checks and balances,” he said. “There's so many different things that you have to kind of go through, especially with something like transportation that deals with the school district, but it also deals with Ministry of Transportation and TransLink.”
According to Singh, part of the checks and balances are in place to ensure decisions being made are not purely political or partisan, and that they actually make sense for the communities.
The province states that the school district is in the planning stages of operationalizing this pilot project. Queensborough families will be contacted in the coming weeks to begin registration and to communicate additional details.
A long road to get bus service
Here are some of the key dates on the route to getting bus service from Queensborough to New Westminster Secondary School:
- July 2016: Mary Lalji, who was officially sworn in at the June 28 meeting after being elected to the school board in a byelection, tabled a motion asking staff to prepare a preliminary report on what it would cost to set up a bus service for Queensborough students attending NWSS.
- February 2017: The school district sent out a questionnaire to Queensborough families with kids attending NWSS and Grade 8 at Queensborough Middle School, asking them if they would be interested in a paid bus service from Queensborough to the high school. (A report by district staff concluded that a bus service wouldn't be possible without a significant subsidy.)
- October 2017: The school district sent out a second survey to Queensborough families about a paid bus service – but this one was offered in English, Filipino (Tagalog), Chinese and Punjabi. It comes after Lalji urged the district to redo the original survey and ensure it’s offered in languages other than English. (Earlier in the year, the district had sent out 273 surveys and received 47 completed surveys – with less than half saying they were interested in a paid bus service.
- December 2017: Jas Johal, who was the Liberal MLA for Richmond-Queensborough from 2017 to 2020, took a transit “ride-along” with Lalji and then-Record reporter Cayley Dobie to see the issues faced by Queensborough students trying to get to the high school.
- October 2020: Aman Singh, the BC NDP candidate for Richmond-Queensborough, visited Queensborough with then-premier John Horgan for a campaign event. Following the event, his campaign issued a press release announcing that a re-elected NDP government would provide free, dedicated TransLink buses to take Queensborough students to and from New Westminster Secondary School.
