The Lethbridge Regional Park 'n' Ride Transit Terminal, file photo. (Image: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Transit seeing strong recovery from pandemic

Sep 22, 2022 | 11:12 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – More Lethbridge residents are taking the bus.

That is according to Lethbridge Transit General Manager Tim Sanderson, who says ridership for the first full week of school this year is up 53% from the same time last year.

He also shared numbers for the second week of September in each of the last three years. Ridership has more than doubled from that period in 2020 compared to 2022, while customers per hour are nearly 2.5 times higher.

Lethbridge Transit numbers for the second week of September, 2020-2022. (Image: City of Lethbridge)

Those numbers are greater than what Sanderson had previously predicted for this year.

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“Obviously, we see an uptick in ridership at the start of school, but this time, especially coming off of COVID, it is even more welcome,” says Sanderson. “Coming off COVID, coming off the professor strike, and really just having everyone back at school and seeing this big bump and just welcoming everyone back on our vehicles.”

He says this is one of the first times in recent memory that he has seen busses in Lethbridge being near or at capacity.

Sanderson explains that transit operators everywhere have been trying to adapt to a rapidly-changing world since the onset of the pandemic as many people who might have previously taken the bus are now working from home.

“The world’s a different place post-COVID.”

It has now been more than one full year since the new cityLINK transit network was implemented in Lethbridge, launching in August 2021.

CityLINK has proven to be controversial as some riders claim the service has become less accessible with some bus stops having been removed and the number of service hours being reduced.

READ MORE: Rally-goers raise concerns about Lethbridge Transit’s cityLINK network

Despite this, Sanderson says it has been remarkable to see better gains in overall ridership than anticipated.

Lethbridge Transit has committed to making quarterly adjustments to the cityLINK network to make any necessary changes.

“We’ve made numerous quarterly changes over the past year, so this is [one full year] of cityLINK right now, and seeing that we’ve got a 50% ridership increase since that redesign, on top of the ridership increases that happened with cityLINK is really encouraging,” says Sanderson.

Whether people are using the bus, the Neuron Mobility e-scooters, or any other alternate form of transportation, Sanderson says he is happy to see more people considering other ways of getting to the places they need to be.

September 22 is World Car Free Day in which motorists are encouraged to give up their cars for a day. The day is meant to promote transit, cycling, and walking.

READ MORE: CityLINK transit becomes permanent, funding decision delayed