Travelling between Cochrane and Calgary will be easier for many public transportation users come this fall, after COLT and Southland Transportation launch an enhanced On-It Regional Transit service between the two communities later this month.
Starting Aug. 29, there will be 11 round trips available per weekday to Calgary from The Station at 660 Railway Street W, with seven scheduled stops to the Brentwood LRT Station and four to various locations around downtown Calgary. Currently, the service provides just two trips per weekday leaving Cochrane at 6:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m.
“It is really great to be able to be picked up in your neighbourhood, get on a bus and never have to get in your car,” said Devin LeFleche, community connectivity advisor with the Town of Cochrane. “We are thrilled that people travelling between Cochrane and Calgary will now have a more affordable, convenient and environmentally friendly option.”
For the first three days, the new On-It Regional Transit service will be free to riders, in celebration of the local and regional transit integration. Following the promotion, a one-way ticket will cost $10, a 10-ticket pack will cost $80, and a 20-ticket pack will be $150.
There will also be monthly passes available for transportation to and from the Brentwood LRT Station and downtown Calgary at a cost of $215 and $270, respectively.
The monthly passes break down to roughly $5.40 and $6.75 per trip. All prices include a COLT ticket to connect riders from the bus stop closest to their home (in Cochrane) to The Station departure point. A COLT bus must be booked to arrive at least five minutes in advance of scheduled departures from The Station and can be booked up to 30 minutes prior to the user’s scheduled arrival time.
The Cochrane-Calgary regional transport fleet will comprise of 50-person passenger Southland coaches at the time of the enhanced service’s launch. Eventually, they hope to integrate executive coaches that carry about 35 riders to replace the larger buses.
LeFleche called the expanded service and improved cost to public transit users a game-changer for tourists, visitors, and commuters from Cochrane alike. Over half of the employed population in Cochrane works in Calgary, he added.
“There’s a large portion of people who just live in Cochrane and work in Calgary [and] there are also quite a few college and university students trying to travel back and forth at an affordable cost,” said LeFleche.
The Town, in partnership with Southland Transportation, launched an online survey in 2021 to better understand the area’s regional service needs. The questionnaire received over 300 responses with feedback from various demographics and helped shape the enhanced regional service that will launch later this month.
“We saw a lot of interest and got a lot of feedback from that,” said LeFleche. “It really helped us to design the schedule we created as well.”
The enhanced On-It service will allow riders to leave downtown Calgary as late as 6 p.m. under its initial schedule, with the last trip back to Cochrane from Brentwood at 6:50 p.m.
LeFleche said they will continue to review demand patterns and adjust the regional service as needed. Locally, COLT has seen ridership return to pre-pandemic levels, with about 250 to 300 daily users.
The regional transit expansion to include more stops between Cochrane and Calgary was originally planned for mid-2020 but was derailed by COVID-19.
Last month, COLT surpassed the 100,000 passenger mark, and demand for the local transportation service continues to grow.
For more information about the announcement, visit ridecolt.ca/regional-service.
For schedule information and an interactive map, visit onitregionaltransit.ca/colt.
