The Medicine Hat Transit Terminal and Parkade. (Photo Courtesy Kevin Kyle)

By Brendan Miller

Medicine Hat Transit looking at reopening previous service routes

Mar 20, 2023 | 3:25 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Transit ridership in Medicine Hat continues to increase six months after COVID-19 health restrictions were lifted.

More people are using the bus, however ridership levels are still down from 2019. The city’s transit system uses electronic counters on all buses to measure how many people are using public transit.

In April the city will begin running a test route in the city’s northeast on weekday evenings and Sundays. The test route will replace the current On-Demand bus service in the area and provide riders a fixed schedule.

The city started using the On-Demand transit service when public health restrictions were put in place.

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Gordon Dykstra, manager of Medicine Hat Transit, says the city will use the small test route to gauge ridership moving forward.

“To see if we can partially put in some of our previously fixed route service and see what kind of response we have from the customers in terms of regular services versus on-demand service. So we are testing. We are going to do some incremental change,” says Dkystra.

The new test route will start operating on April 13 after 6:45 p.m. weekdays and all day on Sunday.

The city will monitor the new test route for three months.