Lack of bus service hurts Strait area commuters

It's harder to get around in the Strait area these days after Strait Area Transit shut down its bus service March 25 because it ran out of money.

The non-profit charitable organization is made up of a volunteer board of directors along with numerous financial partners and sponsoring organizations.

In the past year, municipal partners and the provincial government provided extra money to keep the service going. That money is no longer available and the service was forced to shut down.

That's created problems for commuters like Anne MacDougall.

She lives in Port Hood, and for the last three years she's taken the bus to get to work in Port Hawkesbury 50 kilometres away.

"It would stop at your door, all you had to do was get in a nice warm bus and they would drop you off at your place of work. I really felt that it would have cost me more to take my own vehicle to work than it was costing to to travel on the Transit," said MacDougall.

She's now driving herself to work.

MacDougall said many people used the bus on a regular basis including community college students, seniors going into Port Hawkesbury to buy groceries and parents taking children to medical appointments.

"We think this was a very important service for the residents of the Strait Richmond area and we're really sorry to lose it," Peggy Mahon, director of public relations for the Guysborough Antigonish Strait Health Authority.

The Strait Richmond Hospital is in a rural area outside of Port Hawkesbury, and Mahon says that makes public transportation is particularly important.

"It is definitely going to affect access to services," said Mahon.

The Nova Scotia Community College says about 20 of its students relied on Strait Area Transit to get to classes every day.

Meetings are now underway to see if new funding can be found for the bus service.