Southland Transportation officials say there won’t be any changes to its existing commuter service as it operates the Calgary Regional Partnership’s On-it transit program.
The company was selected as the successful bidder to operate the partnership’s two-year transit pilot project with buses connecting Okotoks, High River, Black Diamond and Turner Valley to Calgary’s south LRT line.
Southland already operates a commuter service on weekdays between Okotoks and downtown Calgary four times in the morning and four return trips in the afternoon.
Murray Glass, Southland Transportation regional director, said there won’t be any changes to its existing service once the pilot project launches this fall.
“We see them as a different service, the On-it is really a regional service,” he said. “We see it as being complementary to our commuter service because really it’s a transit service that connects some of the communities out there and connects to Calgary Transit.”
Glass said they are ready to roll for the On-it service once an official start date is set.
Southland will provide the buses and operate the service, including running a call centre. The company will also cover maintenance and cleaning and the buses will be stored at a Southland facility in Okotoks.
The service will use coach-style buses with seating for 55, on-board washrooms and Wi-Fi.
Ettore Iannacito, CRP regional transportation program manager, said the partnership wanted a higher level of comfort and service.
“We always envisioned it because of the distances that we would need the buses to travel,” he said. “We always envisioned it to be a little bit more of a superior style bus.”
An official start date hasn’t been set, but Iannacito said they expect the service to begin sometime in the middle of October.
Bus schedules also haven’t been finalized, but there will be four trips in the morning and four return trips in the afternoon. Park-and-ride service will be offered from stops at the Okotoks Recreation Centre and the Pason Centennial Arena.
Two routes from Black Diamond and Turner Valley will follow a route through Okotoks and provide local transit service within the community in the morning and afternoon.
Fares have been confirmed.
A one-way ticket from Okotoks to Calgary will be $6 and the price for a monthly pass is $155. A one-way trip from Turner Valley and Black Diamond to Okotoks will cost an additional two dollars. One-way trips from High River will cost eight dollars.
These prices do not include fares for Calgary Transit.
Iannacito said they are still working on logistics for how people can pay, but the preference is for the buses to be cashless.
“We’ll make it really easy for anyone to buy a ticket,” he said.
The pilot program is expected to cost $1 million over two years.
The CRP is providing up to $500,000 per year in funding to the service, which will come from grant funds provided by the provincial government. The four participating municipalities pay an additional $106,000 combined to cover any extra costs above the half-million per year mark.
Iannacito said the service will be reviewed after the pilot project wraps up in two years.
Okotoks Mayor Bill Robertson said he’s looking forward to seeing the buses get rolling.
“It’s all pretty exciting, I want to on that first bus,” said Robertson, who is also the chairman of the Calgary Regional Partnership.
Robertson said reaching an agreement with Southland was an important milestone.
He said the Town will launch a communications campaign once the details are finalized and the buses are ready to roll.
