City hall will continue to look for creative solutions to address Saturday bus service, but until the problem of low ridership is remedied, transit vehicles will remain parked on the weekends.
“The issue is it’s a very low subscribed service that is very expensive to operate on a Saturday. I mean, it’s expensive to operate every day, but Saturday particularly,” city manager Jim Puffalt said during a recent media scrum. “So, it’s really not a capital issue; it’s an operational issue. Again, if we had huge ridership, we’d look at doing something again.”
During the scrum, media asked about city hall potentially giving both school divisions discounted bus passes so they could give the passes to students at less cost. That conversation then turned into a discussion about weekend transit and some residents’ concerns about its absence.
Most costs with transit are gasoline and labour, so it’s unlikely that using smaller buses on Saturday would save much money, Puffalt continued. Such buses would probably burn less gas, but those vehicles would still drive around with few passengers.
“I wish we could find some way to do something on Saturdays. We’re continuing to talk about things but running a regular transit (service on the weekend) is just not feasible,” he added.
Allowing users to jump on the bus somewhere downtown for free and then ride to another stop is not something city administration has considered, but is an opportunity to pursue in the future, said Puffalt. Meanwhile, city hall offered a dial-a-bus program on Saturdays in 2021 that was also poorly used. Only a small percentage of people took advantage of that initiative.
“It was just so high, the costs,” he remarked.
The municipality runs regular transit from Monday to Friday, and while some routes are not full, enough people use the service overall, he continued. In comparison, arenas are not usually busy on weekdays, so city hall ensures services are quiet or keeps those venues closed. It then ensures services are available during the prime-time weekend hours of 4 p.m. to close.
“You could do it — absolutely you could do it — but it’s very, very expensive. And it comes down to, how much are we willing to charge for transit services that nobody (uses)?” Puffalt said.
The media then suggested that city hall work with taxi companies and subsidize them on the weekend to transport residents.
That is a good idea, but it could be cumbersome since city hall would not know whether it was helping residents who need transit service or just required a taxi to reach the bar, replied Puffalt.
“It’s really hard to get through those types of things and deal with the parameters around it. I think we’re very creative, and if there are ways to make things work, we’ll find them,” he continued. “But that one (subsidizing taxis), to me, it’s really difficult to get to the people who want the service.”
City hall appreciates the free bus service that occurs during New Year’s Eve — “That’s an awesome thing” — but SGI pays for that service, Puffalt added. Yet, the municipality will continue to seek a solution that gives residents the transit support they need while using taxpayers’ dollars wisely.
