This month, Canmore’s elected politicians will be asked to consider whether they are interested in looking at the feasibility of local transit in the community earlier than planned.
With the success of regional Roam over the past year between Canmore and Banff, under the management of the Bow Valley Regional Transit Commission, the timing may be right to expand the service locally in Canmore.
Commission chair Sean Krausert said for that to happen, Canmore council will have to make a request for the transit body to conduct a feasibility study.
“Local transit is part of a business plan for the regional transit commission, however, it doesn’t actually start to do anything about it until it receives a request from the Town or which municipal partner would benefit from the service,” Krausert said.
While more transit in Canmore is part of the commission’s business plan, it is a long-term goal. Krausert said at strategic planning sessions earlier this year council expressed an appetite to look at it sooner.
“What that means is I expect sometime in the next month or so that there will be a motion of council to request the transit commission to conduct a feasibility study and there will be a cost associated with that,” he added.
Canmore’s proposed integrated transportation master plan, which was the subject of an open house earlier this year, included possible transit routes to provide more sustainable mobility options and support the town’s growing economy.
While 2014 is when the plan is scheduled to be updated, the information at the open house was that 2015 would be when buses and passenger shelters are ordered and facilities constructed, and in 2016 local transit implemented.
The feasibility study would look at the cost of the service, both capital and operational, routes and potential ridership numbers.
However, it is not the first feasibility study conducted by the municipality into transit. In 2009 a transit-ridership study by Vancouver-based Shirocca Consulting was completed. The study found a number of Canmore’s characteristics work against operating an efficient local bus service and would likely see below average use overall by riders.
The two biggest factors working against Canmore in terms of feasibility was its second homeowner population and the number of residents that work outside the community.
There is also a direction from the province of Alberta to increase transit with more money announced as part of this year’s budget for GreenTrip funding. It was GreenTrip funding that paid for the acquisition of regional Roam transit buses.
An additional $162 million was identified in 2016-17 for GreenTrip, bringing the money available for transit to $667 million over the next three years. A call for project submissions is expected later this year.
