Foothills residents are being given the chance to get On-It for free in January.
Beginning Jan. 6, anyone can ride the On-It Transit regional transit service for free on Mondays and Fridays. It’s the service’s way of letting people check out the bus system with no strings attached.
Currently, fares from Okotoks to Calgary are $6 for a one-way trip from Okotoks to Calgary or $155 for a monthly pass. It costs $8 to travel to Calgary from Turner Valley, Black Diamond or High River, or $170 for a monthly pass.
“We’re really pleased to be providing Mondays and Fridays in January to the public in order to try out our commuter system, our comfortable and cost effective system,” said Colleen Shepherd, executive director for the Calgary Regional Partnership.
Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson said the plan from the beginning to have one day of free transit to encourage new riders to check it out. That idea expanded to provide fare-free transit twice per week through January.
“In the pilot, we’re trying to increase ridership constantly,” said Robertson, who is the CRP’s chairman. “We just want people to come out and try out the bus, and this will give them seven or eight opportunities.”
He said ridership statistics as of two weeks ago showed about 10 to 15 people per trip to the Somerset LRT station in Calgary. He said that number is respectable two months into the pilot program.
“These are 55-passenger buses and we knew it’s very slow to begin with and over the two-year period it will increase steadily,” said Robertson. “We need people to try it once.”
Beginning in the new year, a new payment system should also help attract new riders, he said. On-It expects to begin using a tap card on-board beginning early in January, which would provide an electronic payment options for commuters rather than having a ticket in-hand.
Robertson said it could benefit those who don’t take the bus every day but may need to once in a while, in the case of icy roads or vehicle issues.
“You might think it’s a good day to take the bus, but if you don’t have a ticket that’s an issue,” he said. “So if they’re able to access that and do it with ease I think that will facilitate the use of it and make it more accessible.”
He said he’d like to see the On-It system expand from commuters only to include school groups on field trips to places like the Calgary Zoo as a green and financial reasonable means of taking classes out of town.
“They could get on board and take it to the LRT station, ride that to their destination, have their field trip there and then come home again on public transit,” said Robertson. “That would be so neat.”
