BOW VALLEY – The 2023-25 operating and capital budgets for Roam transit received the thumbs up from the Bow Valley Regional Transit Services Commission.
The new budget – which predicts $8.832 million in expenses and $9.516 in income – will have increased service for certain routes and new positions to help the growing organization.
Service is expected to go to about 67,000 hours – a jump of roughly 1,800 hours from last year – and three new support positions.
“This budget continues to increase the frequency of service. We’re achieving higher frequency on most of our routes that we’ve had in the past. I think this budget will allow us to make sure frequency gets people moving at the right time of day,” said Martin Bean, CAO of Roam transit.
“We tend to have some peaks and if we can meet those peaks with higher frequency and we’re not leaving people standing on the curb and we’re moving people around when and where they need to go.”
A full-time planner and data analyst, which will help adapt routes and give up-to-date statistical information for short- and long-term service expansion, will be hired at about $89,000, including training, equipment and salary.
Two transit support and training officers will join the transit service to help with year-round training and increase road support for drivers. The two positions would overlap over all days of the week and come at an estimated cost of about $187,500.
“It will help get better reporting on when people are riding, what their tendencies are and what the trends are. We have a lot of information that we gather, we don’t have the resources to do a lot with it," said Bean.
"It gives us data such as hourly ridership trends and analyzing which stop people are getting on and off at, surveying more passengers to see what the needs and wants are, and being able to improve service.”
Bean pointed to the addition of training staff as key to helping address the driver shortage Roam faced last summer, which at times left the organization short about 10 drivers and led to less frequent service on routes than planned.
The training staff will allow Roam to take Class 5 drivers and bring them to a Class 2 level as opposed to only trying to find Class 2 drivers, which has the potential to increase the field of potential drivers.
“We need to be able to hire drivers and customer service staff ahead of time and be able to find enough people to make sure we follow through on the goals that we’ve set for frequency,” Bean said.
In addition to staff, two spare electric shuttle buses will be bought to help with the shortage of buses. The cost comes in at $900,000 – about $180,000 for the commission and the balance in grant funding. It is expected the buses will be delivered by early 2024.
The Route 3 Banff/Canmore regional bus will have an extra 4.5 service hours on weekends, with the final bus leaving Banff at 11:15 p.m. and Canmore at 11:45 p.m. The second bus running on weekends would begin at 6 a.m. instead of 10 a.m. as is currently the case.
The route’s popularity has grown, averaging 298 people a day in July 2015 compared to 710 in July of this year. The cost will be an extra $59,976 for staffing and fuel.
“We will see more service on Routes 1, 2 and 3. We had already approved an extra bus on Route 3, which will get us to about 25-minute frequencies,” Bean said. “For Banff next summer, we’ll have an additional bus on each of Routes 1 and 2. It will help with our capacity issues we saw this summer.”
The budget predicts that ridership will largely return or surpass its 2019-pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels followed by an expected one per cent jump in 2024 and 2025.
Though the budget was passed at the commission level, there will still likely be minor tinkering after its members pass their respective budgets in December and January. Bean said those changes would be presented at the January commission meeting.
At its Sept. 24 meeting, Banff council voted to explore the potential of adding free public transit for residents on the Route 3 Canmore-Banff region bus and the Route 8x Banff-Lake Louise express. Banff staff will bring information on the cost and feasibility when service review begins in November. Preliminary information was provided to the commission, with more discussion expected at the November meeting.
Parks Canada and Roam will keep the Route 9 Johnston Canyon continuing year-round on weekends and aims to return to daily service in the summer. The route typically ends in September, but will now have one bus operating with five departures between Banff and Johnston Canyon each Saturday and Sunday.
Banff council approved residents receiving free transit – which began in May – during budget. Residents took about 51,921 fare-free rides up to Oct. 10.
Roam staff will also return to the commission’s January meeting for an update on the ongoing work for the 2021-24 strategic plan. The plan has strategic direction for all four partners in Roam and annual goals to achieve for the transit authority.
Two hybrid buses that run Banff routes are planned to be replaced by electric buses in early 2023 and three new electric buses will come into service for Parks Canada routes.
While the transit service has grown, so too has the cost of fuel. The budget had an increase of nearly 50 per cent from 2021 costs. An increase in drivers’ salaries will account for an extra $150,000 and a further $100,000 to have year-round training.
Revenue before requisitions increased by $630,000 due to extra fare revenue, while operating expenses have increased by $860,000 due to vehicle maintenance ($188,000), drivers wage increase ($243,000), fuel increase ($222,000), insurance ($55,000) and utility increases ($39,000).
Roam will also have to hire 25 to 30 drivers in the next six to eight months for its annual seasonal route increase.
During the summer, the transit authority typically averages about 85 staff, including 60 drivers. In off-peak times of year, the staff level is around 45 people, including 30 drivers.
Through the end of September this year, there have been 1,311,435 riders for an increase of 3.2 per cent for the same period in 2019 when there were 1,270,266. During the same time frame, the Canmore, Lake Minnewanka, Lake Louise express and Johnston Canyon routes all had double digit increases.
All Roam transit routes in September 2022 had increases over its 2019 ridership numbers.
“It’s really about making transit convenient and accessible for everybody,” Bean said.
DRAFT 2023 BUDGET SUMMARY OF REQUISITIONS
- Banff: $2.534 million
- Canmore: $1.781 million
- ID. No. 9: $772,173
- Parks Canada: $1.663 million
2023 ESTIMATED INCOME
- Total pass sales: $3.063 million
- Total income before requisitions: $3.661 million
- Total income: $9.516 million
2023 ESTIMATED EXPENSES
- Total fuel: $927,163
- Total insurance: $173,757
- Total vehicle expenses: $1.688 million
- Total wages drivers: $3.311 million
- Total wages operations: $555,712
- Total operating expenses: $8.832 million
