How can Corner Brook Transit be saved?

At Monday evening’s Corner Brook City Council meeting, Corner Brook Transit was once again on the table… and looking like it might be on the chopping block.

The City has been circulating a transit survey around Corner Brook for the past few months, and some results of the survey, as well as recent transit numbers, were announced at the meeting. The figures didn’t look positive.

You can view the entire presentation here, on the City’s website, but here are the Key Outcomes of Trial Analysis, taken from page 13 of the presentation (emphasis added by me):

  • Students hired by the City rode the buses throughout the summer to assist riders and request surveys be filled out. Only 77 unique surveys were able to be filled out during this time
  • Survey indicates Nextbus is not being utilized, Google Maps is being used
  • Overall ridership has increased and may continue to increase slightly: 80,513 (Trial) vs 68,488 (pre-trial)
  • Ridership of a 2 bus system is comparable to a 4 bus system Averages of 22 rides/hr vs 24 rides/hr
  • Ridership is low during evening hours – Average of 7 rides/hr
  • Saturday ridership is lower than daytime at an Average of 14 rides/hr but is higher than evenings
  • Subsidy/ride is lowest during the day – $5.80 (7am-6pm) vs the highest subsidy during the evenings at $19.38 (6pm-10pm)

According to the City, the following are the Transit Recommendations, taken from page 14 of the presentation:

  • Consider options for a streamlined Transit System:
    • A two-bus system year round on an hourly schedule
    • A one-bus system year round on an optimized route
    • Schedule for the high usage times only
  • RFP to invite independent private sector proposals
  • Seek input from the general public on the value of having a City subsidized Transit Program
  • Seek input from the general public on a reasonable subsidy for a Transit Program
  • Extend the Transit contract for another month to evaluate options based on feedback from the general public

From the survey, these are the reasons people said that they did not use transit:

  • 22% Hours of operation too limited
  • 19% Service not frequent enough
  • 19% Travel time too long
  • 19% Routes don’t take me
  • 19% Routes don’t take me where I want to go
  • 17% I prefer driving
  • 4% Too expensive

And here’s why people do use transit:

  • 35% It’s more convenient
  • 26% Better for the environment
  • 22% Costs less than driving
  • 11% Avoid Traffic
  • 6 % can multi-task while in transit

So given this information, we want to hear from you. Whether you’re a transit user or not, what can be done to improve Corner Brook Transit? The Transit Improvement Trial that has been ongoing for the past year has lead to relatively minor increases in ridership, but no city-wide transit enthusiasm.

Different hours? New routes? Just a greater enthusiasm from the City about transit instead of a use it or lose it attitude? Have your say below!