Downtown bus depot closes Monday in the name of better service

By Gordon Lambie

Monday marks the beginning of a new chapter for the STS, the city of Sherbrooke’s public transit service. As announced earlier this year, the downtown depot station will no longer receive buses as of Monday morning, with the buses that travel through that area now stopping at newly installed stops on King Street itself. STS President Marc Denault hailed the day as “historic.” “In my eighteen years on the city council, I have never seen such an increase in service for the STS,” Denault said, stating that by the end of this year the transportation service will have seen a 30 per cent increase in service hours. “It is extraordinary.” Although a distinctive landmark within the public transit network, the STS President said that the depot station has proven itself, in recent years, to be a dangerous and inefficient component of the bus system. By eliminating the station in favour of the newly expanded stops on the main street, Denault argued that drivers and pedestrians will be safer, service will speed up, and options for those with reduced mobility will be better. “With the removal of the depot station, we will see an increase of approximately 5,000 service hours,” he said, bundling that into the approximately 30,000 hours of service added in 2019 though various grants and adjustments. See full story in the Monday, Aug. 19 edition of The Record.

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