Kelowna’s double deckers gone; post-secondary students paying the price

When students clambered onto the Number 8 bus at Okanagan College this morning, they all got on. But during peak times, some are being left behind.

“Sometimes, they don’t get everyone onto one bus at the end of the school day, so usually there’s a good 10 to 20 people waiting for the second bus,” said student Sienna Hinks.

The same thing is happening at UBCO with the No. 8.

“It’s been full — it passed me twice in the last week,” said student Quinn Krahn.

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The problem of students being left behind has gotten worse since Kelowna’s double decker buses were quietly taken off the road this summer.

In 2002, the first double decker buses were rolled into Kelowna with much fanfare. They were able to seat more than 80 people — double the number a standard transit bus can carry,

Obstacles were removed from certain routes to allow for the taller height of double decker buses.

But this summer, B.C. Transit decided to send those buses to another city.

“In this case, we found that the double deckers could be better utilized in Victoria,” said B.C. Transit, “so we have moved those buses to Victoria and did a bus-swap for the heavy duty buses.”

The local transit union says double deckers would often break down and loading and unloading passengers was taking too much time. However, the union also said leaving students behind is sending the wrong message.

“To hear that there are students being left behind is very troubling,” said Scott Lovell, president of the local Amalgamated Transit Union. “Every time we pass someone by, we give them a reason to avoid transit and get back in their cars.”

B.C. Transit says, that based on demand, it will add additional buses to accommodate the students. It added that getting rid of the double deckers will save Kelowna taxpayers more than $120,000 a year.