The North Battleford Public Transit fleet will have a new addition in the coming couple of weeks.
Councillor Greg Lightfoot confirmed to council Monday that a new transit bus is ordered and is being added to the fleet.
It had been expected to show up by now but there were some last-minute modifications needed so the expectation is it will arrive within a week or two.
The bus will be a welcome addition, said Lightfoot.
“We have two currently, and we are going to add another to the fleet because we are …. proposing to enhance the bus route later on this year, hopefully in July and August,” he told reporters.
Lightfoot indicated the new bus will probably be put into service right away, as the existing buses were getting a lot of miles on them.
Other than that, it will be “the same style of bus, same size, maybe a few neater graphics, that’s about all.”
The proposed route enhancement has been a topic of discussion at City Hall for some time. During budget deliberations in December, Transit Manager Al Love made a presentation to council outlining the bus service’s intentions to expand its service and add the additional bus.
One proposal presented at that time called for possibly splitting the existing citywide route into two routes, with passengers able to switch to the other route at a transfer point.
The idea was to reduce wait times at the existing bus stops, where buses currently stop once every hour and have them run every half-hour instead.
While nothing is confirmed yet about any possible changes, Lightfoot does acknowledge it is a lengthy route at the moment and they would like to reduce it.
“Right now to go from one of the furthest points to the furthest points on the route is about an hour ride,” said Lightfoot. “So we would like to cut that down. We’re looking at 35 to 40 minutes under one of the proposed plans right now, but we are looking at some other options also.”
As well, North Battleford Transit is looking to include new areas in the route. Lightfoot told reporters that Killdeer, Fairview Heights and the industrial area to the east are areas they want to expand to.
Ridership has increased every year. According to minutes from the transit committee submitted to council Monday, the ridership report from October 2014 indicated 1,797 riders compared to 1,357 in 2014.
“If it does keep going as it is, possibly in the next two or three years we may have to look at increasing the size of the buses,” said Lightfoot.
