BANFF – The Town of Banff is looking to roll out enhanced public transit services on local Roam routes.
Elected officials have given the tentative nod of approval for additional Roam service to the industrial compound, as well as extended summer season service on route 1 and expanded winter service hours on routes 1 and 2.
Town of Banff officials say local routes within the townsite saw unprecedented ridership growth in 2023, with a record 1.5 million riders.
“This is really about making our service even better,” said Adrian Field, director of engineering for the Town of Banff.
The net operating costs to enhance the service are $182,000 in 2024, $192,000 in 2025 and $193,000 in 2026 to be funded from visitor paid parking revenues. A decision won’t be final until Banff's operating budget is passed later this month.
An extended summer season would see hours for route 1 (Banff Avenue-gondola) extended by two weeks to match with route 2 (Tunnel Mountain-Banff Springs Hotel).
Roam currently offers 17-minute frequency on route 1 in summer and 22-minute frequency on route 2, with service cut back to 25-minute frequency in mid-September on route 1 and end of September on route 2.
Transit officials say Roam experienced significant challenges in meeting ridership demands on route 1 in the last two weeks of September.
This, they say, is affecting the Roam brand and passenger satisfaction, as both visitors and residents are unable to use transit in an easy and seamless manner.
“Visitor volumes wanting to use transit in late September are at unprecedented numbers,” said Roam’s CEO Martin Bean.
“Drivers are overloading multiple times between the hours of 12 and 8 p.m.”
In addition to capacity demands, route 1 is often unable to meet the 25-minute schedule frequency due to high traffic volumes continuing through the last two weeks of September.
Mayor Corrie DiManno said extending the summer season service on route 1 will make it consistent with other routes, including route 2, route 4 (Cave and Basin) and route 6 (Lake Minnewanka).
“We know the demand is there so let’s just provide the service,” she said.
“It really helps to ensure similar experiences for visitors and helps to ensure that our Roam brand is really strong.”
As for winter service hours, the plan is to increase the frequency of service from 45-50 minutes to 25 minutes for routes 1 and 2 in the early morning and later evenings.
An additional three hours of service for route 1 would allow 25-minute frequency from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., while another three hours for route 2 would mean 25-minute frequency from about 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m..
While transit in the summer months is primarily targeted to reduce vehicle congestion, officials say increasing transit in the off-peak season improves transportation options and reduces the need for residents to own or use vehicles.
“It makes a lot of sense to try to fill those couple of gaps that we have when it comes to the winter service,” said DiManno.
The additional service to the industrial compound would move the start of the service from 6:40 a.m. to 6 a.m.
Service to the industrial area began in 2022 and has provided a convenient way for locals working or living in the industrial area to travel in and out of the town centre.
From January to September 2023, 2,355 passengers traveled each way between Banff townsite and the industrial compound stops – one centrally located and one across from the municipal fleet building.
Bean said this additional service is based on workers wanting to use transit to get to early morning shifts, but he noted it is likely an interim measure.
“Our compound service that we currently run we do early morning, little bit of lunch time and then later afternoon; anything we do for the compound takes away from the frequency we can do to the significantly busier parts of town,” he said.
“In future, potentially a separate route that goes to the compound would resolve that and we’d be able to do more service.”
DiManno voiced strong support for this move, noting she is glad to see the improvements based on feedback from workers by way of an informal poll that was conducted.
“This shows we are trying to make an effort to get people out there earlier in the morning, so hopefully we can see that bump up in ridership,” she said.
“This just helps make it safer to get to the compound and more accessible to get to the compound as we continue to work on that connectivity.”
Banff-Canmore regional service
Banff council has given its tentative nod to increase service on weekends and statutory holidays on the Banff-Canmore regional route 3 route. Canmore council has given the thumbs up in its budget.
Transit officials say it is anticipated that ridership will continue to grow and create capacity issues over the next few years on the regional route, adding more hours on weekends will alleviate these issues and lead to greater ridership.
With prior additions to service, they say ridership has grown at a phenomenal rate, noting weekdays saw about 950 riders per day and weekends 790 per day in 2023, and it is anticipated that ridership will continue to grow.
“This is about adding a third bus so we can have identical service seven days a week,” said Field.
Roam currently operates three buses during the week, two full days and one operating a split shift between 6-10 a.m. and 3-7 p.m.
On weekends, the third bus currently does not operate, leaving frequency at 35 minutes compared to 23-25 minutes during the week. This frequency is further reduced at certain times of the day during driver breaks.
The operating costs to make the service identical throughout the week would be shared between the municipalities of Banff and Canmore. Banff’s share, to be funded through visitor paid parking revenues, is $29,000 in 2024.
“We just keep enhancing the service and people keep showing up,” said DiManno.
