Contract for Central Okanagan transit system quietly renewed with foreign corporation

BC Transit quietly renewed an operations contract with a foreign private company for the Central Okanagan’s bus system, and local transit activists said this buys them time to push for change.

BC Transit has renewed its contract to operate the Kelowna Regional Transit System, which includes Kelowna, Lake Country, West Kelowna, Westbank First Nation, Peachland and parts in between, with the French corporation Transdev for three years starting on April 1 after the current contract expires.

Transit activists, who want private companies out of public transit, are taking the short-term renewal as a positive.

“Three years gives the Okanagan Transit Alliance needed time to continue their lobby work with the intent of replacing the current (public-private partnership) model with a truly public transit model as other jurisdictions have in various regions around the province,” alliance spokesperson Eric Solland said in an email.

A public-private partnership for operating public transit is common in B.C., but there are municipalities like Victoria and Nelson that run its own systems.

A previous private contract to operate public transit in Kelowna was for nine years with options to extend to 15 years, and the current Transdev contract was renewed in 2024 for two years.

“This short term extension shows us and the interested partners that long term commitments are off the table,” Solland said.

BC Transit spokesperson Jamie Weiss said in an emailed statement that Transdev is doing a fine job managing the system.

“This Transdev team continues to provide a high level of service, consistently delivering 99.5% of scheduled service in the Kelowna Regional Transit System. BC Transit is committed to ensuring that this partnership continues to meet the high standards and expectations set by BC Transit and our local government partners,” Weiss said in the statement.

BC Transit consults with local governments but the biggest municipality in the regional system, the City of Kelowna, declined to comment on the new contract.

Benjamin Harris is also a member of the Okanagan Transit Alliance and he said a major issue with a private-public partnership is how it complicates advocacy for service improvement.

“There’s essentially a lot of layers that if there’s bus routes with reliability problems, we’ve got to go through the City of Kelowna, which then has to go through BC Transit, which then has to go through Transdev, and there’s just very little accountability,” Harris told iNFOnews.ca in an interview.

While there have been recent improvements — like service expansions announced in January and improvements to the Rutland Transit Exchange announced in February — public transit in the city still isn’t reliable, he said.

“We’ve got a long way to go before you can call the system OK,” he said. “There’s a lot of gaps still missing in the network.”

In October, BC Transit increased the fares from $2.50 for a single rider to $3 and a monthly pass from $70 to $80.

The alliance is going to keep pushing to get private companies out of public transit, and they hope that three years will be enough time to convince BC Transit and local politicians to get rid of Transdev.

“The Okanagan Transit Alliance will continue working hard representing stakeholders in our region and beyond,” Solland said.