The Vermilion transit pilot hit the ground running and has now become a part of the Focus Society for Support Services programming.
Work is now underway for the next year of public transit.
“Now that we know we’ve got a year for sure before we review again, we are going to strengthen our partnerships that we have at the senior centre, the library, the manors and the lodge,” said Dawn Riley, director of special projects, Focus Society for Support Services.
Read more: Public transit pilot successful in Vermilion
She says the success of the program has been getting people around, including to the library.
“Now they hop on the circuit because it goes right from the (Vermilion Valley) lodge to the library,” said Riley.
“We’re going to survey our riders, our partners, make sure the routes are still working.”
The van has its devoted regulars who ride it Tuesdays and Thursdays and its even hit its full capacity in the past. Recently they offered rides to the fair while it was in town.
“We had a bus stop for seniors and what we were thinking was those seniors that have been born and raised here or grown up here and gone to the fair for 40, 50 years and can’t get there now,” explained Riley.
She says next steps include making permanent stops for the van.
“I will be going to visit town council to ask them to help me create permanent bus stops,” she said. “What we had done was just temporary. The kids at J.R. Robson made us some beautiful sandwich boards.”
Riley says the program has been so successful that they’ve even had some unofficial stops.
“We have the farmers market, but two doors from our farmers market is the denture clinic, it’s technically not a stop,” she said explaining it helps those with mobility issue get to where they need to go.
The surveys the Focus Society plans to do will help inform them if the current route is working for the community or if they need to change it up.
In total, in the van there are four seats with two potential spots to secure wheelchairs in the middle.
Riley said a market they hope to eventually service is getting kids on the bus.
“Right now, we can’t take kids,” she said. “Car seats don’t fit on these seats.”
If a mom and her kids are looking to ride the van, they won’t be able to.
Reflecting on the pilot program, Riley says it was entirely funded by the community.
“The six months was totally, totally community supported,” she said.
Now the work commences for the Focus Society to gather more community support and sponsorships to help fund the public transit program.
The van runs Tuesdays and Thursdays, first pickup is at 9 a.m. and final dropoff is at 4 p.m. A full schedule of times and stops is available at Focussociety.ca
Read more: City of Cold Lake continues transit program
