New Westminster Secondary students travelling from Queensborough are hoping to improve their transit options to and from school, according to one student trustee.
Jalen Bachra is one of the students participating in the student voice program, which includes a handful of students participating in the New West school board’s education committee meetings. The students don’t have a vote, but they do get to provide input into agenda items to offer a student perspective on issues.
Bachra, a Grade 12 student from Queensborough, said he plans to present at next week’s committee meeting on busing issues both district-wide and local to Queensborough.
Locally, Bachra noted challenges in students getting to school by transit.
While students coming from the Glenbrooke North area get a special bus that runs straight to school, Bachra said no such bus exists for students coming from Queensborough. Instead, students must take either the 104 or the 410 to get to 22nd Street station, where they wait for the 128, which stops across the street from NWSS.
“It does take about an hour to get to school,” Bachra said, adding that’s a long commute for something that isn’t exactly a long distance.
“The students who live in the Glenbrooke area have five buses come by after school in the time we get two. It really just isn't fair. If the Glenbrooke area students decided to walk, it would only take them about 20 minutes.”
In the early 2000s, Bachra said there was a bus that stopped in Queensborough, and after crossing the bridge, it made no stops en route to NWSS. That bus, which is no longer a route, would have taken 20 or 30 minutes to get to school – half the time or less than what it can take today.
Bachra said he’s hoping to convince school board to ask TransLink to reinstate a special bus for the Queensborough-area students going to NWSS.
“We have over 200 students coming from Queensborough. The amount that take the bus over the bridge every day is estimated to be just under 100,” Bachra said.
“Queensborough is one of the least wealthy areas. (There are) a lot of immigrants or low-income families here.”
That brings Bachra to his second issue: subsidies. In 2003, the school board passed a subsidy program that covered 100% of students’ bus fares for the year. That, Bachra said, was dropped down to 50% a few years later, and by 2009 it was eliminated completely.
“A hundred per cent would be ideal, however I feel like we would be fine with 50 or 75% because, really, any of the financial support we can get helps,” Bachra said.
