Metro Transit opens new bus garage
Posted Aug 20, 2010 02:47:19 PM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Metro Transit unveiled its brand new garage in the Ragged Lake Business Park Friday, and officials hope it’s the first step towards improving the city’s transit system.
The massive new garage can hold up to 150 buses, with room to expand for 200 buses.
“We were literally at capacity in our old facility in Burnside where we could not add any more buses to put them on the road,” says Metro Transit spokesperson Lori Patterson. “So the opening of this new facility means we can now add to our fleet.”
Something Metro Transit was fast to begin, they showed off four new buses, and Patterson says three new routes will begin their runs August 29.
One of the predominant problems at the Burnside garage was that buses had to idle for 30-45 minutes to warm the bus up. The new facility has in-floor heating and so the idling will no longer be required.
Members from all three levels of government were in attendance, including MP Gerald Keddy, MLA Matt Whynot and Mayor Peter Kelly.
“This is a day that we look down the road and see long term sustainability,” says Kelly. “This is a day we also see operational efficiencies.”
Kelly says it’s the first step in a massive $155 million transit strategy aimed at increasing ridership.
