An NDP campaign announcement of free bus service for Queensborough students is welcome news for the New Westminster school board.
Aman Singh, the BC NDP candidate for Richmond-Queensborough, was in Queensborough this morning (Wednesday) with Premier John Horgan for a campaign event featuring a roundtable discussion about long-term care. Following the event, Singh’s 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.
“This is the only situation in Metro Vancouver where you have students separated from their high school by a bridge and a complicated bus schedule,” Singh said in a press release. “For students in high school, the last thing they should be worried about is making their bus connections on time so they don’t add to their already two-hour daily commute.
“This will cut students’ commute time in half and take pressure off parents who either have to drive their kids or pay out-of-pocket for regular bus service.”
Bus service for Queensborough students has been a longstanding issue for the school district because the distance from the neighbourhood to the high school doesn’t meet the minimum standard for regular Ministry of Education school bus funding.
A previous TransLink bus service ran for more than a decade until being cut in 2014.
In 2017, the school district looked into the viability of a private bus service for Queensborough families, but the school district found it wouldn’t be possible to keep costs to a manageable level for families without a significant subsidy from the district.
The issue arose again during the previous provincial election campaign in the spring of 2017. In December of that year, Liberal MLA Jas Johal – now running for re-election against Singh – took a transit “ride-along” with school trustee Mary Lalji and then-Record reporter Cayley Dobie to experience the complications of the Queensborough commute in person.
Anita Ansari, chair of the New Westminster school board, welcomed Singh’s promise of restored TransLink service.
“The announcement that was made today is one we certainly welcome, as it provides a necessary solution to a problem we’ve heard many people in Queensborough raise,” she said. “In fact, our student trustees presented a very thorough analysis of the needs to our board in the spring … asking for support to make this dedicated bus service a possibility. So we’re glad to see leaders listening to what parents and students are asking for.”
Singh noted Queensborough students either have to walk across a busy bridge, get a ride from their parents during rush hour or take multiple buses to get to and from NWSS – buses that are frequently full, forcing students to wait even longer.
Singh’s announcement said there would be two buses, one for students on Queensborough’s west side and one for the east side, with each bus doing one morning and one after-school run. He said the province would work with TransLink to form a partnership agreement and cover the expected cost of approximately $200,000 a year.
Ansari expressed a hope that other parties would follow suit.
“We hope this is a commitment that would be shared across all party lines, as we need to work collaboratively to find solutions to safely keep our students connected to our schools. And the particular geographic restrictions Queensborough families face make this a great start,” she said.
Singh and Johal – who wound up separated by only 134 votes in B.C.’s fourth-closest race in 2017 – are running alongside Earl Einarson of the BC Greens and Kay Hale of the BC Conservatives.
The B.C. election takes place Oct. 24, with advance voting opening tomorrow (Oct. 15).
