The City of Cold Lake is celebrating 10 years of local public transit and the acquisition of federal funding to continue the program.
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The city says the service is nearing its 10-year mark and has seen a steady increase in ridership.
“A lot of grant funding is based on ridership numbers,” said Mayor Craig Copeland. “Because the service remains free for people to use, we continue to see growth in our ridership.”
Cold Lake Transit offers full-service, accessible transit routes six days a week, connecting the northern and southern parts of the city and 4 Wing Cold Lake.
In 2022, the routes were accelerated to see a bus go by every 36 minutes.
“People rely on our transit system to get around,” said Copeland.
He says the stats reflect the usage by students at certain parts of the day but points out they aren’t the only ones using the service.
“It’s not just students. It’s seniors, low-income residents, families with only one vehicle, or people who are new to the community and don’t have a driver’s licence yet,” said Copeland.
Cold Lake Transit was awarded $1,086,030 in federal funding. The funds will be spread over the next 10 years.
“Keeping it as a free service allows it to remain accessible to everyone. By applying for grants, we can keep the cost of maintaining the service out of the taxpayer’s pockets as much as possible,” Copeland explained.
As of March 31, more than 1.3 million riders have used the service since it began in August 2015.
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