Demand for public transit has grown. The city is being asked to extend hours later in the day, (Susan McNeil/paNOW Staff)

By Susan McNeil

Public transit

Evening hours to be added to city bus schedule

Feb 1, 2023 | 4:01 PM

A proposal by staff to add evening hours to the city transit schedule was met with unanimous support by council.

It was also welcomed by students from Sask Polytechnic, represented by Carlos Correa, who said many of them work in the service industry in Corner Stone.

“The people that work at Cornerstone and they are done work at 11 p.m. can have the chance to take the bus home and not walk,” he said.

Correa said that the number of international students at SaskPoly has grown and now numbers 314, a substantial increase from the 162 international students who attended the Prince Albert campus in 2019.

Raj Chandran, vice president of the student association, supported Correa’s comments.

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“They go to school in the morning and by evening hours they go to work part time at these places,” Chandran said.

Most restaurants close later in the evening which has proven a challenge for the workers when the bus service ends at 6:30 pm.

They then must take a cab which is expensive, walk or try to find someone to give them a ride.

He pointed out that the international students often get their education in Prince Albert then immediately leave to find work in larger cities.

One of the reasons they leave is the lack of public transportation, he said and it is cheaper to not buy a car and live in Saskatoon.

While council still must vote to proceed during a regular meeting rather than reach consensus at an executive meeting such Monday’s, the change looks to go ahead for a one-year trial starting in mid March.

The extended hours would only be on weekdays and the recommended time for the last route is 10:15 p.m.

Some changes would also happen to the daytime route schedules.

Staff say that adding the public high school students to the public transit system increased sales of monthly youth passes from 90 to 320.

Because of that, they also requested to change the rush hour service to run every half hour for all routes rather than just the busiest routes as they are now.

Overall, transit use in Prince Albert has seen steady growth in the last 18 years with a 55 per cent jump in ridership.

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com