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STC ridership drops nearly one-quarter

Jul 15, 2016 | 2:00 PM

Saskatchewan’s government-owned bus company says fewer connections along with weather and cheaper gas are factors in a big drop in ridership.

In its annual report Saskatchewan Transportation Company (STC) said it carried 200,914 passengers in 2015, a decrease of 23 per cent from the previous year. Candace Caswell, executive director of strategic planning and communications, said one major reason is reductions in service by STC’s partner Greyhound, which connects Saskatchewan to cities outside the province, including along Highway 16 through the Battlefords area.

“Greyhound has over the years reduced the number of times that it travels along that (Highway 16) corridor,” she said. “So as there’s less convenient travel times for people looking to get outside of the province, they often look for other ways to get to their destination.”

Caswell explained the changes at Greyhound were initiated by the move to a capacity management system. It requires people to reserve seats similar to booking an airline flight. She added this has also affected the ability of people to buy tickets, particularly at smaller rural locations, and suggested passengers book their trips ahead of time online. This can also still be done at the North Battleford depot shared by STC and Greyhound.

The report said other factors drove people to alternate modes of transportation. Caswell explained lower gas prices made it more affordable in 2015 to drive a private vehicle. And winter conditions played a role as well.

“It was a really mild winter, and for us snow is a wonderful thing,” she said.

The report states STC will adopt its own capacity management system. Caswell said the company hopes to run some lower-capacity routes more efficiently with the purchase of new 16-passenger buses that have lower operating costs and are cheaper to buy. And she said for riders, they’ll be just as comfortable.

“We’ve run smaller buses for decades within STC. We have a few of them within our fleet,” she explained. “But these ones are new to Canada and I would say they will be equivalent in comfort… to our larger coaches. They’re quite great little buses and we’re quite excited about getting them into our fleet.”

Passenger service revenue for the calendar year of 2015 was just under $6.9 million, down from $7.7 million in 2014. Operating costs were $14.9 million, compared to $16.4 million the previous year. The report states the operating loss per passenger compares favourably to the public transportation industry in general.

The company also reported high customer satisfaction ratings – 93 per cent for passengers, and 95 per cent for parcel service users.

Caswell said no changes in routes were planned.

 

Geoff Smith is battlefordsNOW’s News Director, business and agriculture reporter. He can be reached at gsmith@jpbg.ca or tweet him @smithco. Concerns regarding this story can be addressed to Geoff at 306-446-6397.