(Town of Blackfalds)

By Sheldon Spackman

Eye For Growth

Blackfalds BOLT 2.0 transit service showing promise for increased ridership: Officials

Jun 14, 2021 | 2:36 PM

Officials with the Town of Blackfalds are seeing encouraging signs regarding the community’s new BOLT 2.0 transit service.

Despite challenging circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic over the past several months, town officials say the new BOLT 2.0 on-demand digital community commuter service and its new service model has been working well.

The new service provider, application, schedule, ticket procurement and service stop maps, are all acknowledged as being successful so far, according to town officials.

On Tuesday, council was informed of 195 passengers utilizing BOLT 2.0 last month and according to a Monthly Metric Summaries Report, 183 rides were completed in May, with 26 per cent of them shared, and an average shared fare occupancy of 2.2.

Those are numbers that have rebounded from February’s lows this year of 172 passengers, 163 rides completed, 21 per cent of them shared, and an average shared fare occupancy of 2.1.

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In 2012, a regional transit partnership was formed between the City of Red Deer, Town of Blackfalds and the City of Lacombe to provide traditional public transit service between the three communities, as well as local bus services within Blackfalds and Lacombe.

However, a notice of motion passed by Lacombe city council on Sept. 23, 2020, ultimately ended the BOLT regional partnership and ceased operational service on Aug. 28, 2020.

Fortunately, according to town officials, Blackfalds was able to quickly move forward with procurement of a service contractor, purchase of a wheelchair accessible van, and finalized an on-demand transit service model for the community.

The new BOLT 2.0, operating since Sept. 1, 2020, allows for five-day service from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00p.m with many more boarding options for residents and visitors within town, and one stop at the Kingston Hub at the north end of Red Deer.

Preston Weran, Director of Infrastructure and Property Services for the Town of Blackfalds, says ridership has been steady since BOLT 2.0 launched last fall.

“We’ve seen ridership in excess of 300 people per month, as well as low as 200 people per month,” says Weran. “We were hoping for quite a bit more service, but essentially what happened is because of the pandemic, we really saw numbers go down across the whole transit world. But I think with Alberta’s relaunch, it will really help push those numbers up.”

Weran reiterates how easy it is to ride BOLT 2.0.

“It’s on-demand. You just have to download the app and then it’s just like an Uber service. The bus driver will come and pick you up from one of the 40 stops that we have around town and take you to another stop around town or into Red Deer,” he explains.

Weran says if BOLT 2.0 can see increased ridership once the pandemic is over, procuring another bus might be in the cards down the road.

“The big factor for this service working out is really what’s going to happen in the pandemic, as well as the economic recovery of the central Alberta area,” notes Weran.

For those interested in checking out their options with BOLT 2.0, the app is called, “Pick Up On-Demand”.

Weran says hard copy tickets for BOLT 2.0 are also sold at the Town office, as well as at the Abbey Centre.