A new three-year pilot bus to connect Canmore and Grassi Lakes will scale back from full-time service to three days a week due to shortages in buses.
The route, which is set to run from May long weekend to mid-September, will connect the community to the popular Kananaskis Country sites to see if it offsets personal vehicle traffic.
The service was originally intended as a weekend pilot before being switched to full-time service and ultimately pushed back to just weekends for at least 2024.
“We’re really excited about getting this service going, but we want to make sure that it’s done well and reliably,” said Martin Bean, Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission CEO. “With the shortage of equipment that we will have this summer with not getting (the Proterra electric) bus delivered, it was felt that doing a weekend service and gradually building ridership would be the best way to go for the first year.”
Bean said they’re finalizing the final schedule and routes, but plan to release the information in early April. He said the plan is to run it nine hours a day Fridays to Sundays and statutory holidays.
The Grassi Lakes route was announced in 2022 after the provincial government agreed to fund the transit route that would go to the Canmore Nordic Centre and Grassi Lakes day-use area.
Canmore council approved extra costs to have the service connect other parts of the community, which would also add stops at Quarry Lake, Bow Valley Trail, Spring Creek Mountain Village and Town centre.
However, the bus intended to service the route was a Proterra electric bus, which was meant to come early this year but has been pushed back to at least 2025 due to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.
The Proterra bus was bought for $1.05 million, with $700,000 coming from GreenTRIP funding and the province providing the other $350,000. A total of $360,000 for new bus stops, signage and improvements to other stops had the province give $320,00 and $40,000 from GreenTRIP.
The operating costs were estimated to be $183,000 and be split 50/50 between the former Alberta Environment and Parks – now Environment and Protected Areas – and the Town.
Alberta Environment and Parks originally approached the Town and Roam in 2020 about a potential route to the Canmore Nordic Centre and Grassi Lakes.
At its March 13 meeting, the transit commission approved leasing a minibus for summer 2024 to help address the bus shortage and run as a backup for the Grassi Lakes route. The 20-passenger wheelchair-accessible bus can be purchased for about $180,000 or annually leased for $50,000.
“From the province’s perspective, it’s quite important to get that service going this year,” Bean said at the commission's March meeting. “This is a solution that can get the service going. It does allow us with leasing a bus as a backup to let us operate the route on a three-day-a-week basis and still have time to perform maintenance on the other days.”
The commission also approved leasing or purchasing two additional minibuses, with more information to return about costs for both options. The commission was likely to vote by email to decide its April meeting.
Bean noted the transit authority was unable to find full-size buses, leaving the minibuses as the best option for the coming year.
In 2023, Roam had more than 2.6 million riders for its highest number of passengers in its history. However, with ridership expected to be about the same or continuing to grow, no new full-size buses are being added until 2025 and fleet availability could impact service levels.
“Roam administration is exploring all options to mitigate this anticipated shortfall, including outsourcing of routes and leasing of vehicles,” stated a Roam staff report. “Through the initial research conducted, there does not appear to be any leasing availability of full-size vehicles that would meet Roam’s needs.”
Bean said the first year will allow Roam to better understand demand, who is using the service and when and where people are getting on and off the route.
“For the first year, it’s a wait and see and analyze the ridership,” he said. “Not just overall ridership, but where riders are coming from and going because there may be the opportunity for a lot of locals to use it within town as a service to move around as well as visitors.”
