A good start for ridership numbers in Thunder Bay.

Council will have a look at a report Monday as officials indicate that average boardings are at 27 per hour, compared to 43 per hour prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manager of Transit Services Brad Loroff explains where we have seen recoveries in city transit.

“The higher ridership rides are the city’s main corridor routes that are connecting the major destination routes in the city in mixed use areas,” explains Manager of Transit Services Brad Loroff. “What we have seen recently too has been the return of ridership from post-secondary students, the college and university coming back on. It’s just reflective of where people are travelling in the city, and normally it’s those main corridors, the north to south corridors, that have been more robust than others.”

Loroff adds, “What we do not see is a quick return to pre-pandemic levels, we see recovery happening over a longer period of time. Right now, ridership is probably coming in at about 56 per cent of what we saw pre-pandemic, and I think towards the end of the year a good assumption would be to see 60 per cent, and see how things involve into 2022.”

The report coming to council will also discuss On Demand Transit.

This is a service where vehicle routes and schedules are determined by passenger demand. Passengers using On Demand can often schedule their rides ahead of time, or submit a request to be picked up as soon as possible. Vehicles incorporated in the service can include large SUVs, vans, or shuttle buses.

The report provides three key reasons the city should consider On Demand Transit:

 To improve the effectiveness and customer-experience of a fixed-route service that does
not meet minimum ridership thresholds;
To introduce service in an area or during a period that does not warrant fixed-route transit
service due to low demand; and/or
To provide a second layer of transit service on top of fixed-route services to increase
ridership.

The fare for On Demand Transit Service would be the same as Thunder Bay Transit’s conventional and specialized services.

The following graph provides a route performance summary, demonstrating the boardings per hour by route and by system average from January 2020 (pre-Covid) vs current conditions: