Happy Valley-Goose Bay will soon offer Labrador’s first public transit bus

A public transit project years in the making will finally hit the streets in Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The town has been working on getting an electric public bus system up and running since 2020, and municipal officials say the bus should be delivered in the next few weeks.

“We finally got the final piece of funding in place a little while ago to purchase the bus and it should be here in about two weeks,” Greg Osmond, the town’s community development manager, said. “We’re pretty excited about it.”

The town received $672,000 in federal funding through the Rural Transit Solutions Fund (RTSF). The province is also contributing $100,000 to the project, while the Town of Happy Valley-Goose Bay is chipping in $68,000. 

Public input sought

In anticipation of launching what will be Labrador’s first public transit bus, the town held a public meeting on Oct. 30 to talk to potential users of the service, which Osmond said went well.

“We didn’t have a huge turnout but we didn’t really expect one,” he said. “There was some good discussion, and we plan to have more public input now as it goes on.”

Osmond said the service will be useful for many in the central Labrador town, including single parents, low-income workers, new Canadians, seniors, and others who might not have reliable transportation. Though it has just 8,000 residents, Happy Valley-Goose Bay is spread out geographically with stores and services often difficult to access as a pedestrian.

“There’s a group of people that really need this, and they’re really in support of it,” Osmond said. “Other people are concerned about the cost of it. So what we’ve decided to do is look at what people want and what level of service we’re going to offer. We’re not going to offer a full 12-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week service. We’re going to offer a modified service that’s affordable for the Town, and start from there, and then see how it meets people’s needs.”

As part of it’s ongoing public input on the service, the town is now asking people who would use it to fill out an online survey to gauge residents’ transportation needs, how many people will be using the bus, and a number of other factors.

“What we’re telling people is that this service will not be everything to everybody, but it’s a start and we’ll try it and hopefully people will benefit,” Osmond said. “We can expand to meet their needs as we get more information and find out what people need.”

Service will be on demand

When the town looked at different ways to use a bus service Osmond says it considered set routes but determined that would be too costly. Instead, residents will be able to call or use the HVGB On-Demand Bus Service app to get the bus to come pick them up and drop them off where needed in the service area.

“We looked at the route system but based on anticipated low usage, we couldn’t have a bus going around town all day with nobody on it,” he said. “So we’ve decided to go with an on-demand system. This is a system that’s being used right around the world, but even right across Canada a lot of municipalities are using it. 

“This is the system that we’ve decided to go with. People can go use an app or a computer or make a call and book it. So if you had a doctor’s appointment at 10 a.m. you can book that a week in advance if you want to, and someone will pick you up and get you there.”