No public transit system for Strathmore – yet

Andrea Roberts
Times Intern

 

During a special Town Council meeting, the one-time grant program GreenTRIP was defeated by a 5-2 vote on June 20.
The government of Alberta’s Green Transit Incentives Program (GreenTRIP) provides capital funding for environmentally friendly public transit in Alberta communities.
The project proposal presented to Town Council was for the purchase of two small, fully accessible buses and 23 bus signs. Some of the reasons for its defeat were that the community wasn’t large enough for a public transit system and the operating costs would be too high.
The special Town Council meeting was only to determine grant approval; the idea of a transit system has not yet been brought to council. Now, with the grant defeated, planning for a transportation system will be put on hold.
“The transportation issue wasn’t defeated, but there is nowhere to go with it,” said Coun. Bob Sobol. “At this point, we anticipate there will be another GreenTRIP application in the future and we will assess it again that time.”
The GreenTRIP grant proposal was defeated 5-2, with only Coun. Sobol and Mayor Micheal Ell voting in support of the application.
According to Sobol, the idea for a transportation system has been mentioned around town for a number of years. After attending a FCSS transportation group meeting, some seniors brought up the issue. Sobol decided to start looking into the idea.
So about five months ago, with the permission of council, he had the planning office do some research into the idea of a transit system and the GreenTRIP application program had come around at the same time.
A transit system is not completely off the table, as Strathmore may become part of a pilot project with the Calgary Regional Partnership (CRP) within the next few years, which will have a LRT bus line running between Calgary, Chestermere and Strathmore.