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The Transit Sunday Pilot Program A Success

By 250 News

A four month pilot project that offered basic Sunday service has proven to be a winner.

City Transit Analyst, Warren Hall says the trial produced positive results, with average ridership of 30 per hour. That’s well above the target average (20 riders per hour) for other routes in the City.

The pilot project operates one bus from 11 am to 5:45. The service loop starts in College Heights, through the University, then downtown via Uplands. The return route heads from Downtown to the University via Heritage.

Hall says now that there is a demand and the pilot project is set to end ( today is the last day) he will have time to develop a better Sunday Service “We will move hours to where we need them as people have told me they would like to use a Sunday transit service to get to Church.” Hall says he will use the down-time (May through end of August) to develop that Sunday service which will be in place from September to December. Funding for the September to December service was approved by Council as a reinvestment of dollars saved. (click here for more)

Prince George Transit has reason to celebrate.

It carried its one millionth rider last fall, had a 21% increase in ridership last year, and has already noted a 10% increase in ridership this year.

“The system we designed in 2004 is almost nothing like the one that existed in 2003” says Hall. The public and the drivers had a great deal of input on how the system was revamped. “I used to put up maps of routes on the wall, and drivers would comment about what would, or wouldn’t work” says Hall, “They had a huge amount of input in the development of routes, after all they are the ones who drive the routes and talk with riders everyday”

Riding time has also been reduced. Studies indicated that back in 1998, the average ride was about 2 hours. The latest information shows the average ride is now about 27 minutes.


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