The On-It commuter bus service which connects residents of Okotoks, High River, Turner Valley and Black Diamond to Calgary’s Somerset-Bridalwood LRT station is planning to simplify its service come September.
“We’re going to just have two routes rather than four,” said Ettore Iannacito, transit manager for the Calgary Regional Partnership. “It’s about really correcting and righting the ship. It’s adjusting the service to what we’re seeing.”
On-It launched the commuter service in October 2016 as a two-year pilot project. Part of the plan was to allow for adjustments in service level as ridership numbers changed over time.
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“A pilot is all about trying to figure out what works best and pilots are often experimental,” said Okotoks mayor Bill Robertson.
The proposed change in September would see one route which currently services High River integrated into another route, while a route providing service inside the town limits of Okotoks would be eliminated.
“They found that in the first six months the ridership (on the internal Okotoks route) has not been as extensive as we had thought otherwise,” Robertson said.
“Our transit committee is going to look at some other internal transit in the town of Okotoks perhaps starting at the same time. This may involve 20-passenger buses which are more cost-efficient.”
In the pilot project’s first three months, an average of 21 people per day were using On-It system-wide. Since January, that number has increased to an average of 50 riders per day. The system has a capacity for 70 riders per day.
Iannacito said while the ridership numbers show there is too much service given the number of people currently using the buses, he feels the change will also help simplify the service for those trying to figure out the schedules.
“It’s too complicated,” Iannacito said. “Our customers are telling us they are having a hard time reading the schedule, the routings are a bit confusing. People are getting on and it’s doing a slightly different thing than they expected, so we listened.”
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On-It has also operated a pilot project this summer providing weekend service to Banff. Robertson says that routing and schedule is not impacted by the proposed commuter service changes, adding that ridership levels for that route have been very high with some trips having sold out.
The four communities involved in the pilot project need to approve the route changes. Iannacito hopes that can be accomplished to implement the new schedules September 1.
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