The region's transit board has approved in principle a plan to provide late-night service for buses heading out of downtown Victoria on weekends.

If formally approved, several routes leaving the downtown core would have night service extended by one hour on Fridays, Saturdays and select holidays, with final trips departing between 2:30 and 3 a.m.

The routes being considered for extended hours include:

  • 4 (UVic/Downtown)
  • 6 (Royal Oak Exchange/Downtown)
  • 14 (Victoria General Hospital/UVic)
  • 15 (Esquimalt/UVic)
  • 27/28 (Gordon Head/Majestic/Downtown)
  • 50 (Langford/Downtown)

The plan would also include extended late-night service from downtown to the Saanich Peninsula on Friday and Saturday nights, with last buses leaving between 12:30 and 1 a.m.

The increase in service would result in an additional 2,000 hours annually, according to the commission.

"The transit commission realizes that getting people safely home is an important part of the service," said Victoria Regional Transit Commission Chair Susan Brice. She added that Victoria's police chief Del Manak personally wrote a letter to the commission in support of the plan to extend transit hours.

"We think that anyone who is in the downtown area in the evening – either they've gone down there for entertainment, for dinner, they're working, whatever reason has taken them downtown – they are seeking ways to get home," said Brice.

The move to extend late-night transit is also being applauded by groups like the Victoria Downtown Residents Association, which penned a letter to the commission supporting the expansion.

"As a number of other stakeholders have noted, this would significantly reduce noise, disruption and safety concerns for downtown residents after bars and other venues close, by offering both patrons and workers an affordable means of quickly exiting the core area," wrote association president Paul Gandall.

The Hotel Association of Greater Victoria has also thrown its support behind the added service, saying it would help disperse crowds around bars on weekends, something that currently "causes grief for people that live downtown and for visitors of our city."

It also said it would benefit employees who work in the hospitality industry, as many live outside of downtown due to high rents and lack of available housing.

While the plan is only approved in principle, it's likely to be ratified via email because a few members of the Victoria Regional Transit Commission couldn't attend Tuesday's meeting.

Commission staff will now work through the logistics of changing the service hours. The changes will not be implemented until September 2019, when service changes are made annually.