A two-year review of Cochrane On-Demand Local Transit (COLT) service shows ridership making a return to pre-pandemic levels.
Service levels from COLT's launch in October 2019 to March 2020 compared to service levels from the beginning of the pandemic until October 2021, show a predictable sharp decline in COLT ridership.
The number of weekday passengers shrunk from an average of 172 to 105, a 39 per cent drop. The number of Saturday passengers saw a similar 35 per cent decrease, from 60 riders to 39.
At its lowest, there was an average of about 37 riders per day in April 2020.
"Where we've been quite lucky is how quickly we've rebounded in seeing ridership come back up," said town sustainability and transit coordinator Devin LaFleche. "We have seen days where we get back to pre-COVID numbers, but the next day we can be down by 50 per cent, so it's very inconsistent. It becomes challenging to then try and plan the service."
LaFleche's presentation to town council at a Feb. 22 committee of the whole meeting, indicates the number of weekday passengers was back up to about 158 by October 2021. It has been on a steady upward trend since June, after about 15 months of ebbs and flows.
In its 2020 budget, the on-demand transit service expected a gross operational cost of $655,402, with another $25,000 for material goods and services.
Taking a number of buses off the road to match lower demand allowed COLT to save $158,642 in operational costs. It also garnered $51,345 from fare and advertising revenue, allowing the service to come under a net $600,000 budget by 22 per cent.
The budget for 2021 increased to $683,337 with another $15,000 for material goods and services. The service came in 5 per cent under the net budget thanks to $44,627 in operational savings and $83,655 in revenue.
"I think we're super fortunate that we were using an on-demand service when COVID hit because it really did allow us to adapt our services to fit and save funds," said Coun. Tara McFadden.
She added that while some have expressed disappointment in COLT's on-demand platform, that "it's still a process we all need to learn how to use and adjust our expectations around."
All buses in its fleet have recently returned to operation given the return to near normal ridership and despite some issues with staffing in the transportation industry, said LaFleche.
In the review, LaFleche identified the top three bus stop locations as Grande Boulevard and Quarry Street, Bow Valley High School and Fireside School.
"We see a lot of usage in the core, [at] the rec centre, the high schools, as well as in our more distant communities," he said.
Many students in particular are opting to use COLT instead of school buses given their eligibility for a $25 per month discounted rate and average overall trip times of 14 minutes.
"We have over 120 school buses in Cochrane," said LaFleche. "There's a reason for that — about one-third of our population is under 18. We have eight COLT buses."
Only three or four buses are run during peak hours, he added, so they've been unable to fulfill demand. Nor do they want to compete with school buses.
"When we have someone from GlenEagles, someone from Sunset and someone in Fireside all booking to, let's say, the tri-schools — that can tie up our buses for almost a full hour," LaFleche said.
The service only allows booking trips that will take up to 30 minutes, he added. If it takes longer, buses will still run but instead opt to pick up and drop off each student exclusively, which can exclude other riders during peak times.
To amend this, LaFleche said they will be restricting school stop drop-offs to 20 minutes before buses arrive and 10 minutes after start bells in the morning. COLT will only be able to arrive for pick-up at stops in the afternoon 10 minutes before the last bell and 20 minutes after buses leave.
"It keeps our buses from going into very congested areas and [prevents] having this high rate of failed trips for residents who can't use school buses, and who are relying on COLT too, during these peak hours," he explained.
The changes are expected to take effect in Fall 2022 to give riders time to adjust to the impacts.
LaFleche said the primary feedback they're hearing from riders is to extend service hours into late Friday and Saturday night and to add a Sunday service.
"As we come out of COVID, we have some residents who are really expressing a need for more service, more ways to get around the community, using COLT," he said.
Buses currently operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday-Friday and from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. There is no service on Sundays.
Coun. Marni Fedeyko suggested a pilot program to determine how many passengers would actually use the bus on a late Friday or Saturday night.
"I understand the complex area that we're in," she said of Cochrane's size. "We're not really big but we're not really small and so we need to try to find areas to fit everybody in."
COLT has also partnered with Southland Transportation's On-It service to provide interim regional service between Cochrane's Transit Hub, Brentwood LRT Station/University of Calgary, and SAIT/Downtown Calgary through an on-demand approach. Dynamic and fixed routes may also be introduced depending on commuter usage.
Southland is covering the cost of 18 hours of rides from Cochrane to Calgary each day to serve as a smaller test for the planned local/regional service integration between COLT and an enhanced On-It regional service. They are also looking into adding a summer route to Banff.
Stoney Nakoda members, too, are set to receive regional transportation support as early as next month thanks to federal funding application approved for the Nation. The four-year pilot project connects Morley and Cochrane through a bus stop at the new Transit Hub which is set to open by summer 2022.
