After years of surveys and reports, students helped turn a difficult transit challenge into a real-world pilot

For years, surveys and reports have documented what Columbia Valley residents already knew: the local transit system wasn’t meeting their needs. A lack of evening and weekend service made it difficult for people to get to jobs, attend after-school sports and appointments, and participate fully in community life.

Rather than simply documenting the problem, students at David Thompson Secondary School decided to do something about it.

The David Thompson Secondary School Climate Club (DTSS CC), supported by Wildsight Invermere, took on the challenge of improving local transit. With funding and volunteer support, students conducted a community transit survey, produced a short documentary about local transportation challenges, and presented proposed solutions to the Regional District of East Kootenay’s Columbia Valley Services Committee and District of Invermere Council.

But changing a complicated public transit system proved difficult. Despite the students’ efforts, progress was slow.

In the fall of 2025, the initiative was revived. The students learned that expanding transit service requires evidence of demand — yet proving demand is difficult when the service people need isn’t available in the first place.

Instead of accepting that Catch-22, the DTSS Climate Club proposed a practical solution: a transit pilot that could create the evidence needed to demonstrate demand.

That idea has now become reality.

Over the past year, Wildsight Invermere has supported the DTSS CC as students and community partners worked through the many steps required to make the pilot possible — securing grants and letters of support, conducting further community engagement, and working with local governments and community organizations.

What began as a student-led effort to highlight a problem has evolved into a real transportation initiative. The students didn’t just raise awareness about a difficult bureaucratic situation; they helped find a way through it.

Now, they are asking the community to take the next step with them.

The Columbia Valley’s new Late Bus launched September 22, connecting Canal Flats, Fairmont, Windermere, Invermere, Radium and Edgewater between 6:45 and 9:20 p.m. The service is available to everyone — including students, residents, part-time residents and visitors.

The pilot runs from September 22 to November 13, with Valley Vibes providing a 24-seat passenger bus at a discounted rate. Fares are $2.50. Information about fares, routes and schedules is available here.

The organizers hope strong ridership will demonstrate that evening transit is needed. If the community uses the service, the pilot could provide the evidence needed to support a permanent expansion of evening service.

For students, that could mean greater access to extracurricular activities and part-time jobs. For residents and visitors, it could mean another way to get around the valley while reducing transportation emissions.

The project’s organizers thank Columbia Valley Economic Development, Valley Vibes and the Lake Windermere & District Lions for helping bring the project over the finish line, as well as the Village of Canal Flats, Village of Radium and communities in Electoral Areas F and G for their support through Columbia Basin Trust ReDi Grants  and Grants-in-Aid.

The Late Bus is more than a new transit route. It is the result of students recognizing a community problem, navigating a complex system, persisting when progress was slow, and helping turn an idea into action.

The next step is simple: ride the Late Bus and help the students demonstrate what they have been saying all along — that there is a need for better evening transit in the Columbia Valley.

Wildsight Invermere

Article Share