More and more people are using Saint John Transit — and new figures back that up.
The transit agency says it is on track to have the highest ridership year in its history.
More than 695,000 rides were recorded during the first four months of 2024.
If that pace continues, officials expect to be well over 2.1 million rides by year-end.
Ian MacKinnon, director of transit and fleet for the city, believes their efforts to transform transit are having a positive impact.
“Ridership has not flattened out, meaning it hasn’t risen to a level and then flattened,” MacKinnon said in an interview.
“Ridership is continuing to increase, and the rate of change at which ridership is increasing is changing as well.”
Saint John Transit began implementing its Transforming Transit project in 2022 to ensure the sustainability of operations, better serve current riders, and attract new passengers.
It includes longer hours and more frequent service on main lines, a new digital fare payment system, and the launch of three new on-demand FLEX routes.
MacKinnon said they have recorded more than 50,000 rides since launching on-demand service, which replaced fixed-route service in areas that historically had a lower population densiry.
“The west side, in particular, has been very successful. That zone is very large,” said the director.
“We’ve had a lot of very positive learnings during this process of launching on-demand. It’s here to stay. It’s been very successful.”
MacKinnon said there are more changes to come, including a computer-aided dispatch and automatic vehicle location project later this year.
That will allow them to roll out a number of new features, such as onboard stop announcements.
