New bus station in Kelowna, B.C. comes at a steep price

A growing population in the Central Okanagan is pushing Kelowna, B.C., city councillors to look at building a new transit garage, and it comes at a price of over $100 million.

“The growth is what’s driving the need for a new facility,” explained general manager of infrastructure with the City of Kelowna, Mac Logan.

“Our current facility is overloaded and can’t expand any further so we’re looking at building a new site.”

The Central Okanagan transit system currently operates out of the City’s public works building off of Hardy Street. It was originally designed to accommodate roughly 70 standard 40-foot buses, but it’s currently home to just over 100 buses.

The new location is just south of the UBCO campus on the west side of Highway 97. BC Transit wants a new additional service and buses to its fleet, including some that run on electricity, but in order for this new bus garage to get approval, upgrades are required at the existing site.

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“It’s really about time,” expressed Logan.

“In order to increase our service prior to the new operations and maintenance facility being ready, we have to stretch our current capacity.”

The new garage could take as long as 2030 to be completed, so the city will need to add more capacity to the current site. A report going before city council on Monday highlights the need to spend $4 million on upgrades on the Hardy Street garage.

“That would be going towards things like expanding the maintenance facility and improving the parking areas, and Kelowna typically pays about a quarter of that cost,” described Logan.

The future facility is designed to hold about 150 buses in the first phase, and eventually will have a capacity to house 230 buses.

“The city is doing several million dollars worth of preliminary work to prepare the site design,” said Logan.

“The actual cost has not been determined yet, but it’s likely going to be at least $100 million or more, and the majority of that cost would be borne by the province or BC Transit, and the City of Kelowna will contribute.”

Logan adds that the hope for the City of Kelowna is to receive funding approval from the federal government through a transit grant program, but in order to submit that application, that alone will cost the city $285,000.

“We cannot do this facility without higher order of governments supporting us,” said Logan.

“There’s just not enough capital funding in the Central Okanagan.”