City administration says St. Albert Transit's on-demand service system, called Book-A-Bus, is being so well-used by the public that up to 35 per cent of ride requests are going unfulfilled during peak service hours on Saturdays.
Despite the significant uptake, and significant number of unfulfilled rides, the city has no plans yet to expand the on-demand system, which has a current bus fleet of four, council heard on June 6.
Jay Mason, the city's director of public operations, wrote in a report to council that St. Albert Transit (StAT) doesn't want riders being unable to access service; however, budget restraints mean the city is currently unable to expand the program.
“StAT has observed some periods and days of the week when unaccommodated trips reach a consistently high level,” Mason wrote. “We have in these instances deployed additional buses, but we must do so carefully so as to remain within budget.”
“There are noticeable periods of the existing operation that could also use the addition of another bus, but we have held back in alignment with the approved operating budget.”
Currently StAT's on-demand service is offered weekday and Saturday evenings between 6:45 p.m. and 11:45 p.m., and between 6:00 a.m. and 6:45 p.m. on Sunday's and statutory holidays.
City spokesperson Nicole Lynch told the Gazette as of June 5, over 1,600 residents have signed up on the Book-A-Bus app, which was launched last September.
“With the previous app provider, the StAT On-Demand service had 1,535 accounts as of July 20, 2022,” Lynch said.
