On Tuesday I wrote about a few of the issues St. David's has had to deal with. Among them I voiced frustration with how St. David's has been handled both in recent years as well as the more distant past. Even the Premier agrees that St. David's won't be an easy win which is primarily due to the fact that our needs haven't been satisfied. As I don't wish to be someone who only complains and offer's no solutions, I've decided to elaborate on what could be done to make things better.
One of the things I mentioned is that bus service is inadequate. While we have morning express runs, we're short on reasonable evening options. Could the #3 route be extended later in the evening to match it's morning service so that St. David's gets better evening service?
Over the last couple days I've had the opportunity to catch the bus into town in the morning and get more familiar with St. David's bus service.
From the two experiences I had, St. David's has respectable morning service. At 6:40am and 7:40am, the morning two routes terminate in Hamilton as they inherit the service along the number 3 line and run out to Bermudiana road. My two experiences were on the 6:40am run which was full enough to fill the seats but not so full as anyone was left without one. It is a quiet and somewhat pleasant ride where I've had the opportunity to get in some reading on the ride to work and still managed to turn up for an early morning meeting with time to spare.
While the I enjoyed the morning service, I was unable to find an evening service that meets my needs. The only evening service that I found was on Route 11, Hamilton - St. Georges which offered a 5:25pm to St. David's. Seeing as I usually work until at least 5:30pm, this proved inadequate.
What makes this especially inadequate is that the last run into St. David's is at about 6:30pm or thereabouts for all routes. This means that if you don't catch a 5:30pm bus, it is likely you'll be stuck at the number 1 gate. So if you're like me and you regularly work till about 5:30pm, you're pretty much stuck without service to St. David's, as it's near impossible to leave work and get to a bus on time.
It doesn't make a great deal of sense to offer a morning express via the #3 route while not offering it in the evening. Could the #3 route be extended to run leaving Hamilton at 5:45pm and 6:45pm to run direct to St. David's? This would result in better evening service to St. David's and a better option for those who arrive at number one gate too late to catch the last route #6 service to St. David's.
They've now launched the minibus service (they're calling it a "midibus"?) for St. David's. Hours of operation are 9:45am to 8:45pm. Seems to be a little on the short side in terms of hours of operation, but what are your thoughts Denis?
http://www.royalgazette.com/siftology.royalgazette/Article/article.jsp?articleId=7d835b330030004§ionId=60
Posted by: Tryangle | March 11, 2008 at 10:36 PM