The City of Moose Jaw will eliminate regular Saturday bus service early next year since ridership that day is less than half compared to a weekday.
City hall will discontinue regular bus service on the weekend starting Feb. 1, 2021 for a one-year period, so it can determine what effect this has and whether there is still a need for it that day. Furthermore, city administration plans to prepare a business case for the 2022 budget discussions to determine if it’s feasible to return to 30-minute routes instead of the current 40-minute routes.
Regular transit ride fares will also increase to $2.25 from $1.25, starting Feb. 1, 2021.
There will be no change to paratransit service next year, although rates will increase to $1.50 from $0.50.
The reduction in Saturday service is expected to save $80,000, while the increase in regular transit rates and paratransit rates is expected to produce more than $93,000 and $15,000 in revenue, respectively, according to a council report. The net effect should create more than $188,000 in revenue.
City council unanimously approved the changes during its Dec. 9 budget deliberation meeting.
Transit background
City administration reduced transit services when the pandemic hit since there were not enough customers to run the system effectively, explained city manager Jim Puffalt. It eliminated some routes altogether while it shut down Saturday service — ridership is historically low that day — and moved to a dial-a-bus service.
“It (dial-a-bus) was not used very much at all,” he said, noting there were roughly two calls for service per Saturday. “People who use the bus Saturdays found another way to go (places).”
When full service returned in September, an average of 160 people used the service. In comparison, an average of 500 people use transit during the week. This means per-trip cost on Saturday is $8.39 per rider and per-trip cost on the weekday is $7.10 per user.
Total ridership post-pandemic has been 135,000 passengers compared to 235,000 users pre-pandemic.
While transit and paratransit are important, it is expensive to subsidize them, Puffalt stated, pointing out that both services received $1.2 million this year and are expected to receive $1.3 million next year. In particular, paratransit has a subsidization rate of $12 per rider per trip at the current fee of $0.50 a rider.
City hall needs to “rationalize” the transit service it provides, look at what it can do to reduce costs, and provide a reasonable and affordable level of service so people will want to use it, he added.
Council discussion
The paratransit subsidy concerned Coun. Heather Eby, who thought that while those riders needed that service, most taxpayers shouldn’t have to cover the cost. She lives on a bus route and sees empty buses pass by all day.
“For the amount we spend on transit, the people could be taking a taxi. We could be paying for the taxi,” she said. “I just feel we have to get a handle on this transit system. It’s way beyond control.”
Coun. Dawn Luhning agreed, saying she had wanted to see regular transit stopped altogether in March and April to see what effect that had.
While she thought the fees should be increased to cover the subsidy, they didn’t go far enough, she continued. Luhning wanted to discuss this again during the 2022 budget deliberations and potentially look at whether some underused bus services should be eliminated completely.
Statistics show more people — especially Saskatchewan Polytechnic students — walk than take the bus in the summer, while ridership goes up in the winter, said Puffalt. During normal years, student-focused bus routes and regular routes are full in the mornings and in the late afternoon. It’s the time in between when buses are empty.
The next budget deliberation meeting is Wednesday, Dec. 16.
