Is it a move in the right direction or a case of taking one step forward before taking two steps back?

That was the feeling among some Coquitlam councillors Monday, as council approved an ambitious transportation plan that aims to have 30 per cent of all trips in the city made by foot, transit or bicycle by 2031.

While that goal was seen as laudable, the spectre of cuts to bus service in Coquitlam come April clouded the debate.

"If we don't have reliable bus service, it's almost the same as not having any because if people can't count on it, they won't use it," Mayor Richard Stewart said in an interview Tuesday.

Stewart was responding to a suggestion made Monday night by Coun. Brent Asmundson, who said service cuts to the Nos. 151 and 169 routes will be a reality by mid-April.

A bus driver for Coast Mountain Bus Co., Asmundson said the changes to the No. 151 route will include a shift to hourly service, as opposed to half-hour service, during evening hours and the elimination of the first morning route each day.

Cuts to the No. 169 route would include a move to start the service later each day, on top of changing the frequency of the buses from every 15 minutes to every half hour.

"This is all done as part of [TransLink's] service rationalization program, and it's going to cause a lot of issues," said Asmundson, who chairs the city's engineering, utilities and environment committee. "[TransLink] is taking these hours and placing them somewhere else in the system."

Asmundson also pointed to proposed changes around overloaded buses, and how the regional transit authority may be looking to relax regulations around how and when drivers can pass by certain stops due to crowding concerns.

"While they may have overloads in Vancouver, the impacts of those waits are not as severe as what they will be in the outlying areas," he said.

"So if you miss a bus in Coquitlam, the service impact is huge. If you miss a bus that is now going to hourly service, you are now waiting almost a full hour for the next bus. The other issue comes down to safety. Do you want young people waiting on the street or at a bus loop for a half hour or three quarters of an hour at night?"

TransLink spokesperson Drew Snider could not elaborate on Asmundson's comments in an interview Tuesday.

"We don't have the final details done yet and that's going to come out in the next few weeks," Snider said.

Asmundson said about 12 per cent of all trips in Coquitlam currently fall under the transit, walking or cycling banners. However, the cites of Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster boast numbers in the range of 40, 28 and 35 per cent, respectively.

Those numbers, according to Coun. Selina Robinson, are tied to having SkyTrain service in those communities and proper bus connectivity to those SkyTrain routes.

"I think that's really critical," she said. "Unless we have that actually happening here, we're not going to hit our targets. Having said that, I am told and constantly reassured that it's coming, but I think it has to have the right support from the city."