Steven Hill
[email protected]
Just as Canadians were casting ballots to fill seats in our country's government on Monday (Jan. 23), residents of Hilltop House were filling seats on a brand new Squamish Transit bus.
A second HandiDART bus was added to the company's fleet, ensuring better bus service for those in the community with special needs.
"The new bus is absolutely state of the art," said Scott Pass, general manager of Squamish Transit. "The bus has a new fasten-down system, which means we can load and unload the wheelchairs more quickly, and it means we can get more chairs, or some of the larger chairs onboard. Some scooters and larger mechanized wheelchairs can take up a lot of room."
Pass said the new bus, which carries a price tag between $150,000 and $160,000, is much needed.
"The reason we have it is to replace our old bus, which was a van," he said. "We now have two, full-sized HandiDART buses."If the one HandiDART , which was the main one, had to go in for repairs or something, then we would use the smaller one so we could maintain most of our service," he said. "But it would inconvenience some people who would either have to change their schedules or appointments."
The new bus will join the other HandiDART in servicing Hilltop House and other seniors' manors, the hospital, special needs children at the various schools and others with special needs in the community.
"The HandiDART is for people who can't use regular transit," Pass said. "If people are looking for information, whether it be for the HandiDART, and they qualify and want to register, or if they just want to know about transit they can contact us at 604-892-3567."
