Federal, provincial and municipal funding for new transit fleet maintenance facility

Regina Transit.

The Honourable Ralph Goodale, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness, the Honourable Jim Reiter, Minister of Government Relations for Saskatchewan, and His Worship Michael Fougere, Mayor of Regina announced funding for a new Transit Fleet Maintenance Facility in Regina on June 3.

A key component of making the City’s transit system efficient and effective, this project includes the construction of a new 60,000-sq.-ft. Transit Fleet Maintenance Facility adjacent to the current Transit Operations Centre (TOC). The existing 67-year-old facility, which is located 3 km away from the TOC, no longer meets the needs of Regina’s ever-growing transit fleet.

“We all know how important investing in affordable and efficient public transit infrastructure is to allow Canadians to get to work on time and back home at the end of a long day. This new maintenance facility will increase efficiency, help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and better meet the transit needs of Regina residents now and into the future,” said Goodale.

The new facility will increase efficiency, saving upwards of 3,000 hours a year currently spent transporting buses back and forth between the two locations. Eliminating this extra drive time, in addition to being able to accommodate larger energy-efficient articulated buses at the new facility, will contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, this new facility will enable the City to meet the service needs of the community in the future with the delivery of transit to existing and new neighbourhoods.

The governments of Canada and Saskatchewan are each contributing up to $9,716,666 to this project through the Provincial-Territorial Infrastructure Component – National and Regional Projects (PTIC-NRP). The City of Regina is contributing $10,666,668. The estimated total project cost is $30,100,000.

“This project is all about growth and sustainability. A new transit maintenance facility is an important project that will ultimately result in an increase in frequency of buses and expanded transit service to existing and new neighbourhoods for Regina’s growing, diverse population. Consolidating our bus maintenance and operations facility will make us more efficient, reduce emissions, and make transit operations more sustainable,” said Michael Fougere, Mayor of Regina.