Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

NNSL (May 14/99) - Yellowknife Councillor Bob Brooks says a busing plan he devised will provide better service and cost less money than a plan recommended by a consultant the city hired to study its transit system.

Brooks' plan incorporates three bus routes and serves Kam Lake, the airport and more areas in the subdivisions of Frame Lake South. Brooks said it would provide service at most city stops every 30 minutes.

The plan recommended by the consultant, known as Option 4, had only one route, did not serve Kam Lake, and also provided 30 minute service.

"Very few people, if any, at that public meeting were in favour of Option 4 ... and I certainly was not," Brooks told a special meeting of the public works and safety committee Tuesday.

In addition to providing less service than his proposal, Brooks said Option 4 would require six buses, which would push up the price.

But others were not so sure of the viability of Brook's alternative, which the councillor developed in consultation with the present bus contractor, Frontier Coachlines.

City staff, in pricing out the system, said Brooks' plan would cost the city about $160,000 more annually than Option 4.

City staff said the plan, like the one recommended by the consultant, would require a series of extra buses to handle student traffic. Brooks disagreed, saying his system would not require extra buses to handle student overload.

Though all agreed Brooks' system provided superior service, they weren't convinced the numbers added up. The consultant, UMA Engineering's Steve Keen, was not in town to address questions raised by Brooks' proposal.

"If it's going to cost us a couple of hundred thousand more, I don't think we can afford it," said Coun. Cheryl Best.

After speaking with Keen yesterday morning, public works director Gary Craig said, "We anticipate (Brooks' plan) is still going to cost more."

Yesterday the city put out a call for proposals for both options.