Don Atchison prefers more buses over BRT system

Former mayor Don Atchison wants the city to pause expensive projects, and bus rapid transit (BRT) is at the centre of his attention.

Speaking to reporters outside city hall on Friday, Atchison expressed his concerns over BRT, its initial cost and its effect on future property tax hikes.

“I would rather us put the whole thing on hold, take a deep breath and come back and visit it at a later time,” Atchison said.

Rather than implementing the previously approved BRT system, Atchison prefers a “frequent bus service” that would see buses stopping more frequently along busy roads in the city, something already being done in various parts of the city.

“Who wants to go and miss the bus by just a minute and wait for half an hour?” he said. “Are we not far better off having buses coming every seven-and-a-half minutes or less to a location along the main thoroughfares?”

Calling BRT “a 20th century solution for the 21st century,” Atchison said the cost of a similar BRT system in London, Ont. has a price tag of roughly $500 million even though the estimated price tag of Saskatoon’s BRT is pegged at $120 million with the provincial and federal governments sharing a brunt of the cost.

“You don’t build the infrastructure that goes with it,” he said. “You’re adding more buses to those particular areas but you’re not adding the capital expenditures.”

“It may help generate jobs over the short term, but the long term costs of the city — we need to know those as well,” Atchison said of the initial construction.

Even though he was part of council in 2016 that voted in Saskatoon’s growth plan to half a million people he said he never fully supported BRT, a key component of the growth plan.

“We only approved that we would go ahead further,” he said. “We did not approve the final outcome for BRT.”

Atchison said BRT needs the Canadian Pacific rail line which runs through the city to move, something he said he would be able to accomplish with relationships alone during a news conference last week.

Saskatoon’s BRT is expected to begin construction in 2022 with a launch date of June 1, 2025.