By James Wood

City shakes up transit routes

Aug 9, 2017 | 12:21 PM

Transit in the Gas City is being sent in a new direction.

The City of Medicine Hat announced today that the transit system in the community will implement new series of routes, starting on September 5, 2017. The aim of the changes was to provide improved services, while saving money.

Community Development General Manager Howard Snodgrass said it means more transfer options through a common-sense design.

“The route you went out on is the route you can come back on,” said Snodgrass. “If you choose to transfer to another route to go to a different location, you can do that much easier through multiple transfer points en-route, as opposed to connecting to one of three terminals.”

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The new bus system will have two core routes for primary service, and a trio of feeder routes for peak usage times.

The routes will operate in two directions with connections. Feeder routes will not operate on weekends or holidays.

Community Access Manager Simon Amos said this change will hopefully provide more consistent trips for transit users.

“We looked at simplifying the system with just having five routes, and keeping the same routes for the same timings for the day,” said Amos. “So, each route is 30 minutes long, so the timings of your bus stop will be every half an hour.”

The City expects that the changes will reduce the operating costs of the transit system by $650,000 per year. Prior to the announcement, Medicine Hat residents had ranked transit as an area preferred for service adjustments, in order to offset property tax increases. The ranking was the result of the Financially Fit survey done in 2016.

The number of buses during peak hours will decrease from 12 to 10 and from eight to four during non-peak hours, which means some transit workers will be unemployed.

“We don’t require as many operators to provide that service,” said Snodgrass. “But, we are working very hard to minimize any loss of employment through attrition and other processes internally.”

Public information sessions are being put together by the City for those wanting to learn about the new routes. A supplied schedule was as follows;

Aug. 10, Family Leisure Centre, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Aug. 16, Family Leisure Centre, noon to 4 p.m.

Aug. 19, Co-op Mall, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Aug. 23, Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, 9 a.m. to noon

Aug. 26, Medicine Hat Mall, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Aug. 29, Co-op Mall, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Aug. 30, Medicine Hat Regional Hospital, 9 a.m. to noon

Sept. 5, Esplanade, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. 

The City also provided a temporary helpline for information and questions, which can be reached at 403-529-8900.

-with files from Scott Roblin