At 7:55 on a Wednesday morning, Haley Smith makes her way to the bus stop at the intersection of Evergreen Square and Evergreen Boulevard.

It would take the slim, dark-haired woman only 20 minutes to drive from the fledgling neighbourhood of Evergreen to downtown where she goes to school at MC College, but Smith budgets almost an hour for the ride on public transit and shows up early at her stop.

The number 28 bus, which passes through Evergreen just 19 times a day on weekdays, runs every 30 minutes during peak periods. If Smith misses her bus, which is supposed to rumble by at 8:02 a.m., she’ll be late for class.

“I guess what I expected from the bus system was that it was going to be better, quicker,” said Smith, who moved to Saskatoon from Humboldt this summer. She chose to live in Evergreen, northeast of the city’s Forestry Farm and Zoo, because a friend’s family owned a house there and she got a good deal on rent.

She knew taking transit from the “boonies” to the city centre would be a challenge, but hadn’t realized how poor the service was until she was forced to use it, she said.

The buses run infrequently on weekdays, but not at all after 6 p.m. or on weekends.

“I think it would make anybody go a little bit crazy because it’s just frustrating, it’s so frustrating,” Smith said.

Transit service in Saskatoon’s new neighbourhoods is developed in phases. Areas like Evergreen and Rosewood start with a skeleton service devoid of evening and weekend buses. That’s supposed to increase after five years of development.

Evergreen is due for expanded service starting in January, but the city administration has questioned whether this is the best use of taxpayer dollars.

In a report to city council this summer, city staff said it would cost an additional $209,000 over two years to offer increased service in the neighbourhood and recommended the current service continue to be offered until the city has a clearer plan for the future of transit, including bus rapid transit (BRT). Data on the number of transit riders in the neighbourhood was not provided.

The proposal did not go over well with councillors, who soundly voted it down.

“It just didn’t seem to make any sense to me that there would have been any question that we would be extending service,” said Coun. Zach Jeffries, who represents the neighbourhood.

He said he’s heard from dozens of Evergreen residents who are angry about the poor transit service there, and acknowledges the last five years of such service has not been “particularly pleasant” for them.

“In waiting this long to extend the service, that’s not really sending the message that (transit) is a viable option and something that we want all citizens to at least try out,” he said.

Evergreen resident Juliana Marques is among those who have complained. She said the neighbourhood’s poor transit service has led many to believe you can’t live there without a car.