Airdrie Transit is set to resume local service on Saturday.

After suspending Routes 1 and 3 due to COVID-19, the services will be back up and running every 60 minutes, six days a week as of August 1.

The local routes run along major arterial roads in Airdrie including Yankee Valley Blvd, East Lake Blvd, Veterans Blvd, and 8 Street, with Route 1 running clockwise and Route 3 in the opposite direction.

During the COVID-19 suspension, local routes had been replaced with a Dial-A-Bus service, which will continue to operate at a reduced capacity until August 31.

Routes 901 and 902, also known as the ICE bus into downtown Calgary has been running on a reduced schedule, with a total of three trips in the morning and three trips in the afternoon.

Route 900, which provides service to CrossIron Mills and the Rundle LRT station in Calgary, has upped its frequency to hourly trips. 

concern at this point is enforcement," he said. "The transit service is operated by a contracted service provider. We do our best not to put an operator and a customer into a dispute situation. We don't want to see that escalate or increase in frequency with a mandate to customers to wear masks."

However, MacIsaac says Airdrie Transit strongly recommends the use of masks at this time and in fact staff have spent this week bagging approximately 46,000 masks to be distributed to transit customers.

"We have made a commitment to ensure that our customers are being protected from COVID," said MacIsaac. "We're going to make sure that these masks are available for distribution starting by the end of this week. So we are putting measures in place to ensure those customers that are making a choice to wear a mask have access to those masks."

Currently, MacIsaac estimates less than one per cent of customers on the local routes voluntarily wear a mask. That increases to between 45-50 per cent of customers who use Route 900.

"We anticipate Route 900 to almost double within the next week as Calgary have their bylaw coming into effect. So I think that in essence is going to help increase the masks being worn on transit. But there are other areas where I think there is an opportunity for us to educate customers on the importance of wearing a mask."

Further information regarding Airdrie Transit, including route schedules can be found HERE.

 

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