Swift Current public transit service under the microscope this year

Swift Current’s public transit system will be watched closely during 2019 in an attempt to make the service more efficient and less of a money loser for the City of Swift Current.

Swift Current City Council approved their annual operational services contract with Saskabilities at their January 14 meeting, spending $239,907 for Swift Transit operations and $172,884 for Access Transit services.

The Swift Transit system was put in place in 2015, but city council is not satisfied with the ridership numbers as the public transit system enters its fourth year. They have reduced public transit funding by $500 per month as a result of reduced service hours on the Blue Line, which will now stop operating at 3 p.m. instead of a privies quit time of 6 p.m.

“As a council, at budget time we decided to continue with the service. But I do want to stress to people that we did not decide to continue with this service indefinitely. We haven’t committed to it 100 per cent. This is still in trial mode. We still need to make sure that this make sense for the citizens of the City of Swift Current,” Councillor Ryan Plewis said during Monday’s Council meeting.

“This trial has been an extended trial, I guess would probably be the best way to put it. And we continue to seek efficiencies to make the service more efficient.”

Swift Transit had a 2018 annual ridership of 24,000, but the cost recovery percentage is lower than city officials hoped.

“It’s probably lower than we would like it to be in terms of the revenue generated from those rides,” explained Mitch Minken, General Manager, Infrastructure and Operations for the City of Swift Current. “We use some comparators, like transit across Canada, there are numbers that are out there that we use as the comparators. And at the 24,000 we are a little below where we would like to be.”

“Coming out of the budget cycle, that was the request that we do a review of it this winter, and we’ve looked to see if there are any incremental improvements that we can make,” Minken explained.

“Council’s looking for as efficient a system as we can run. So both in terms of service and also certainly as in terms of cost.”

“If the demand is there in the community for the Swift Transit system, we should make sure that that ridership is there, and that people are using it. Otherwise if we are providing for a very low number of riders, we’ve got to look and rationalize the system that we have.”

Minken added that these discussions pertain only to the public transit system.

“We’re not considering any changes to the Access Transit system,” Minken confirmed.

Plewis noted the transit operational agreement requires the compilation of transit ridership data between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., as well as an evening trip log from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. It also requires hourly date of pick-up and drop off locations for public transit users.

“That will be useful in giving us an idea whether that evening shift is running the way that we need it to run to be a profitable service,” he said.

“If you are somebody who believes in this bus service, somebody who wants to see this bus service continue, I would encourage you to find out more about it, do what you can to support the service. Because even with the sales of advertising, even with a chartered bus service that I see is available here, the revenues that come in don’t even come close to covering the cost. We are very interested in trying to shrink that gap.”

“I know there are people who rely on the service. I know it’s an important service to some people in our community. What I’m asking is that I hope we try to make this a more relevant service for more people in our community to make it make sense moving forward for all of us.”

“Please, if this is something that you care about, act accordingly because decisions will be made based on the data.”