The future of public transit in Vermilion looks promising following a pilot project by a local non-profit.
The FOCUS Transportation Service began operating on Feb. 11 with six daily trips.
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“We ended up running Tuesdays and Thursdays for six hours a day,” said Dawn Riley, director of special projects, Focus Society for Support Services.
The van runs from Vermilion Valley Lodge to the Cornerstone Co-op, with stops in between.
“(We) started at the lodge at nine o’clock in the morning and ended at the lodge at 10 a.m. and did that until 4 p.m.,” said Riley.
There’s a total of 16 stops, one of which is Tim Hortons, which Riley says led to a local success story for them.
“We had a gentleman from the lodge who went for his first public coffee on the bus,” she said. “It was the first time he had ever gone for coffee, the first time he’d ever been able to do that and he’s 62.”
Throughout the process, they kept track of some of their performance measures.
“We looked at our ridership, financial viability, satisfaction and reliability and community engagement,” said Riley.
Although they didn’t meet their unique riders goal, there was still a win to be celebrated.
“We have four regulars,” said Riley, noting two of the regulars are from Parkway Manor Apartments for Seniors.
A one-way ticket is $5, which unfortunately didn’t cover all of their costs. Luckily, the community was there to help.
“We were hoping fares would cover a large chunk of our cost, but they didn’t,” said Riley. “But, the community sponsorship and donations more than covered, actually, it almost covered our entire budget.
“We had nine businesses and three service clubs sponsor or donate.”
Through survey feedback, Focus found the program was very successful.
“I did surveys a month in, to the manors and the lodge, with 90 per cent satisfaction,” said Riley. “The only complaint was (from) a lady that you could tell had never used a bus service because she said there was too many stops between her place and the haircut.”
In the three years it’s been operating, the current van’s odometer is almost at 200,000 kilometres. The future of the program is still unknown as the final decision has yet to be made.
“I’m reminding you again, if my board says this gets to go on, I’m going to come ask you for permanent bus stops,” said Riley. “Right now, we’re using sandwich boards that the J.R. Robson School kids made.”
Deputy Mayor Joshua Rayment says he’s heard nothing but good things about the program.
“Very seldom do you hear so much positive feedback about something in a community,” he said.
Riley says the Focus Society board of directors will be meeting at the end of July to discuss the future of the public transit service.
She says she still wants to see service expanded to the college if the program continues.
“I still have the same goal, a second van and a second route over at the college,” said Riley. “We’re meeting with the college in September about providing a service to their students.”
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