New buses are rolling through Cold Lake.
Two new city buses were unveiled on Tuesday, Oct. 16, entering into regular service that afternoon.
"We've been waiting for a bit for the buses, but it was pretty exciting," expressed Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland.
The buses will replace the previous ones the city purchased from Calgary, with updated designs specifically reflecting the city's vision.
General manager of infrastructure services Azam Khan said the Cold Lake Transit System has been successful since the 2015 launch, and the city was lucky to have the buses when they started the program.
"We were fortunate enough to get buses from the City of Calgary. They were offloading their fleet, and we implemented those buses here," he noted.
Copeland added, "The Calgary buses that we had served their purpose to see if there was lots of interest in transit in Cold Lake, and there is."
The newer buses are easier to use and designed to be more accessible for all residents.
"The bus sinks, and it will cater better for people with disabilities. It has a ramp that pulls out and has a designated section in the front for them," Copeland explained.
The purple and grey colour scheme is attention grabbing, and Copeland said "the manufacturer was really impressed with that because it wasn't normal. Buses are usually blues and greens, ours was kind of unique."
The city's physical layout could be one of the reasons behind the popularity of the transit system, along with the location of the stops.
"We wanted transit to make the city livable and affordable. The city is spread out, big time, from north to south and out into the base. It's a really challenging municipality, where it's unique because you normally grow from the centre out. Cold Lake has three communities in one, and transit links everybody together," expressed Copeland.
Funding for the purchase of the buses came mainly through the federal Public Transit Infrastructure Fund and provincial Green Transit Initiatives Program (GreenTRIP). Cold Lake picked up the remaining $159,000 of the cost.
"We had a big helping hand from the federal government and the province in terms of grant money, and we got two new buses and the city only paid a quarter of the price," Copeland detailed.
The older buses will be used as back-ups, while council will look into grants to see if another newer bus can be funded.
Currently, Cold Lake Transit remains free of charge for residents. Although, the City of Cold Lake council will discuss whether or not they will continue offering it at no cost during their budget deliberations.
