Cold Lake Transit will be reducing its hours in order to cut costs.
During their 2019 budget deliberations, the City of Cold Lake decided to look at ways to cut back on the operational costs of their transit services, which continue to be offered to residents for free.
Council wanted to see a minimum of $100,000 reduced.
Director of transportation and utilities Azam Khan presented two options for council to consider during their corporate priorities meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 15.
“Option one is losing two hours from a day at the start time and the end time... and removing statutory holidays, excluding Canada Day and Remembrance Day,” detailed Khan.
That would mean the buses would run Monday to Saturday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and be closed on holidays such as Christmas and Good Friday.
Option two, which was the preferred choice, would see a two-hour cut to operations throughout the week and four hours on Saturdays.
“We would also remove operations on statutory holidays, like option one,” Khan added.
In this scenario, buses would run Monday to Friday 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Saturdays.
While the first option meets the city's reduction by $130,000, the second has a decrease in operational costs by $150,000.
“Administration is recommending option two, it meets council’s reduction,” expressed Khan.
Another plus was the option of providing an accelerated service on Saturdays that would take riders directly from the north to the south, without having to switch buses.
"Right now, people board and re-board buses in order to change directions, but they won't have to do that now," Khan stated.
Some of the downfalls of this choice noted by city staff are the loss of early morning and late night services.
Council agreed that option two was the most suitable, and will forward it to their regular council meeting for a final decision.
Khan said integrating the new schedule would take some time, so riders shouldn't expect any changes right away.
CAO Kevin Nagoya said regardless of which option they chose, riders would be impacted by the reduction in hours.
