Photo/ Curtis Galbraith

By Courtney Almeida

Transit Changes

Changes coming to Grande Prairie Transit service

May 22, 2019 | 5:30 AM

City Council has approved changes to public transit aimed at improving transit efficiency and ridership demands. Smaller busses will be implemented for select evening and weekend service and some routes will see schedule adjustments.

“There are a number of routes and a number of times in areas that it just doesn’t make sense to have larger busses and many communities are in the process of doing this or already have done this for a number of years; where they try to match the demand with the supply. Rather than having a 40-foot bus running around for two or three hours with one or two people on it, you have a smaller bus doing that,” says Steve Harvard, Transit Services Manager for the City of Grande Prairie.

Through a review of the entire transit system in the current Transit Business Plan, a focus has been placed on aligning service levels with ridership demand. New adjustments will include an expansion to route coverage and bus frequency.

The City’s Transit department assessed current bus capacity with data collected to determine ridership usage. The data was also collected to determine future needs based on trends.

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In order to collect ridership data, transit technology was used to calculate passenger levels, drivers were consulted, and the City implemented a public engagement period to retain community input.

“We know exactly how many people are riding, what time their getting on, what route their getting on, what bus their getting on and that’s all done through our fair box system. So, we know what our ridership is at any given time,” said Harvard.

It was determined that smaller busses should be implemented for select evening service as well as for Saturday and Sunday service. This decision will help align capacity with demand and contribute to a reduction in operational costs for fuel and maintenance by approximately 10 percent.

To help balance transit availability and best serve the largest number of riders, some routes will also see adjustments.

“Ridership over the past year has been slowly increasing, I would say to date we’re probably about almost 4 percent higher than last year, but it really is concentrated on a number of routes. Routes one to four are very strong. They always have been. Routes five, six and seven are the ones that have not performed as well as hoped.”

The City points to Route 7 as an example for change.

Before 2015, Route 7 operated as a “school only” service route with just one trip in the morning and one in the afternoon. The Transit department determined that school trips account for 84 percent of the total ridership. As a result, the route will be returning to a “school only” service.

Harvard explains that, “there’s ridership during certain times of the day but then in the evenings there’s none. An example would be the Industrial area, where basically after 6 p.m. nobody rides the bus, because there’s no reason to be in that area.”

City transit is funded both by user fees and from property taxes. Funds are allocated through a structure setup to serve the maximum amount of people at the most efficient cost.

Investments will now be made to buy smaller busses and add additional bus shelters.

Route changes will come into effect mid-August and riders will be given a minimum of 60 days’ notice to prepare for travel adjustments. Notices will also be posted on busses and in bus terminals.